Mercury porosimetry method differential intrusion

Scaffold porosity and information on the pore size distribution can be obtained from intrusion techniques. The most commonly used methods are mercury porosimetry and capillary flow porometry. In mercury porosimetry the pressure required to fill a tissue scaffold with non-wetting mercury is monitored over a set period of time. Higher pressures are required to fill small pores than large pores a fact that can be exploited using the Washburn equation13 to extract structural information where D is the diameter of the pore at a particular differential... 

Measurements of particle porosity are a valuable supplement to studies of specific surface area, and such data are particularly useful in the evaluation of materials used in direct compression processes. For example, both micromeritic properties were measured for several different types of cellulosic-type excipients [53]. Surface areas by the B.E.T. method were used to evaluate all types of pore structures, while the method of mercury intrusion porosimetry used could not detect pores smaller than 10 nm. The data permitted a ready differentiation between the intraparticle pore structure of microcrystalline and agglomerated cellulose powders. 

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