Pore structure volume

Commercially used activated carbons for gas separation and purification are generally produced from coal, petroleum, vegetable, and polymeric precursors. The nature of the precursor, the method of carbonization, and the activation procedure determine the pore structure (volume and size distribution), the... 

While mercury porosimetry still ranks among the most commonly used methods for the determination of pore structure, volume, size, and related data, concerns associated with the presence of elemental mercury, although well contained, triggered the development of alternative equipment. For example, Fig. 11.11 shows different... 

The maximum internal holdup is determined primarily by the pore structure/ volume of the catalyst, and can range from about 0.1 to 0.4 for typical materials. Static holdups in the range of 0.02 to 0.05 are characteristic of most packed beds of porous catalyst. Summaries of such correlations for work done up to about 1980 are found in the reviews of Gianetto et al., and Satterfield, as cited. These seem fairly... 

Parameter k of Equation (4.10) is an expression of the breadth of the Gaussian distribution of the cumulative micropore volume IF over the normalized work of adsorption sfifi, and is therefore determined by the pore structure. Thus B also (cf. Equation (4.13)) is characteristic of the pore structure of the adsorbent, and has accordingly been termed the structural constant of the adsorbent. ... 

N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms revealed that MCs had hi surface area (>1200 m /g) and large pore volume (>1.0 cm /g). From SAXS patterns of the prepared materials, it was confirmed that pores of SBA-15 and CMK-3 retained highly ordered 2-dimensional hexagonal type arrangement [5], while MCM-48 had 3-dimensional cubic type pore structure. It should be noted that a new scattering peak of (110) appeared in the CMK-1 after the removal of MCM-48 template. Furthermore, the pore size of CMK-1 and the wall thickness of MCM-48 were found to be 2.4 nm and 1.3 nm, respectively. This result demonstrates that a systematic transformation of pore structure occurred during the replication process from MCM-48 to CMK-1 [6]. 

Since it was proposed in the early 1980s [6, 7], spin-relaxation has been extensively used to determine the surface-to-volume ratio of porous materials [8-10]. Pore structure has been probed by the effect on the diffusion coefficient [11, 12] and the diffusion propagator [13,14], Self-diffusion coefficient measurements as a function of diffusion time provide surface-to-volume ratio information for the early times, and tortuosity for the long times. Recent techniques of two-dimensional NMR of relaxation and diffusion [15-21] have proven particularly interesting for several applications. The development of portable NMR sensors (e.g., NMR logging devices [22] and NMR-MOUSE [23]) and novel concepts for ex situ NMR [24, 25] demonstrate the potential to extend the NMR technology to a broad application of field material testing. 

Illustration 6.2 indicates how void volume and surface area measurements can be combined in order to evaluate the parameters involved in the simplest model of catalyst pore structure. 

Scanning electron microscopy and other experimental methods indicate that the void spaces in a typical catalyst particle are not uniform in size, shape, or length. Moreover, they are often highly interconnected. Because of the complexities of most common pore structures, detailed mathematical descriptions of the void structure are not available. Moreover, because of other uncertainties involved in the design of catalytic reactors, the use of elaborate quantitative models of catalyst pore structures is not warranted. What is required, however, is a model that allows one to take into account the rates of diffusion of reactant and product species through the void spaces. Many of the models in common use simulate the void regions as cylindrical pores for such models a knowledge of the distribution of pore radii and the volumes associated therewith is required. 

If we assume a quasi-cylinder pore structure of the electrode material as in Fig. 1, an average effective pore radius r can be evaluated from the relationship r = 2V/A, where V is the total pore volume, and A is the total pore surface that can also be determined using the DFT method (see also [5]). Then the migration coefficients determined as shown in Fig. 5 can be plotted vs. the pr2 product - see, e.g., Fig. 7 for five electrodes, which were made of various porous carbons produced by Skeleton Technologies. 

Physical properties of calcined catalysts were investigated by N2 adsorption at 77 K with an AUTOSORB-l-C analyzer (Quantachrome Instruments). Before the measurements, the samples were degassed at 523 K for 5 h. Specific surface areas (,S BEX) of the samples were calculated by multiplot BET method. Total pore volume (Vtot) was calculated by the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method from the desorption isotherm. The average pore diameter (Dave) was then calculated by assuming cylindrical pore structure. Nonlocal density functional theory (NL-DFT) analysis was also carried out to evaluate the distribution of micro- and mesopores. 

The development of microporosity during steam activation was examined by Burchell et al. [23] in their studies of CFCMS monoliths. A series of CFCMS cylinders, 2.5 cm in diameter and 7.5 cm in length, were machined from a 5- cm thick plate of CFCMS manufactured from P200 fibers. The axis of the cylinders was machined perpendicular to the molding direction ( to the fibers). The cylinders were activated to bum-offs ranging from 9 to 36 % and the BET surface area and micropore size and volume determined from the N2 adsorption isotherms measured at 77 K. Samples were taken from the top and bottom of each cylinder for pore structure characterization. 

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