an adsorbent material fabricated into a reinforcement - free , self - supported coherent thin sheet and configured for use as a parallel passage contactor element in adsorption / separation applications with gases and liquids is disclosed . the adsorbent sheet material is obtained by enmeshing fine adsorbent particulates in a polymer binder . particulates include but are not limited to carbon particles , inorganic oxides particles , or ceramic particles , or synthetic polymer resin particles , where the characteristic length of particles is in the range from 0 . 01 μm to 100 μm . particles of nano scale and mixtures of particle sizes may be advantageously incorporated . the adsorbent sheet advantageously contains a large volume percentage of active adsorbent particles . the parallel passage contactor device fabricated from the adsorbent sheet material is characterized by minimal mass transfer resistance and better separation efficiency expressed as height equivalent to a theoretical plate , while it maintains most of the adsorptive properties of the starting particulates , and can be used in gas separation applications with short adsorption cycles , such as rapid pressure swing adsorption , rotary concentrators , rapid electric swing adsorption .