Powers-Brunauer model

In the Feldman-Sereda model, the gel is considered as a poorly crystallized layered silieate and the role of water is much more complex (Fig. 7) than is recognized by the Powers-Brunauer model. Water does not re-enter the interlayer after d-drying. Water, in eontaet with the d-dried gel, acts in several ways ... 

Brunauer and co-workers (B55,BI08) considered that the gel particles of the Powers-Brownyard model consisted of either two or three layers of C S-H, which could roll into fibres. D-drying caused irreversible loss of interlayer water, and the specific surface area could be calculated from water vapour sorption isotherms, which gave values in the region of 200m g for cement paste. Sorption isotherms using N2 give lower values of the specific surface area this was attributed to failure of this sorbate to enter all the pore spaces. 

The Feldman-Sereda model was based on the studies of sorption properties, porosities and relations between water content and physical properties. Alone among the proposed models, it is clearly compatible with the microstructural evidence and with the probable relationships between C-S-H gel and crystalline compounds. It is incompatible with that of Brunauer, but not with the essential features of that of Powers and Brownyard in its original form if the nature of the gel porosity is reinterpreted. Calculations of bound water (Section 7.3.3) indicate that about a third of the gel porosity of the Powers-Brownyard model is interlayer space, the remainder being micro or fine meso porosity of the kind shown in Fig. 8.4. However, as that figure illustrates, the boundary between interlayer space and micropores is ill defined. 

Fig. 5.34 Schemes of different C-S-H models a of Powers and Brunauer. b of Feldman and Sereda, modified by Daimon. c according to Wittmann...

Adsorption isotherms. Isothermal microcalorimetry, in conjunction with an RH perfusion device, is a powerful method for mapping surface properties of solids and especially drugs [32]. The principle of the study is to adsorb and desorb water vapour onto and off the surface of a solid in small steps and measure the associated enthalpy change. At low RH values, monolayer water sorption conforms to a BET (Brunauer, Emmett and Teller) model and can therefore be used to determine surface properties. The analysis of the data can be achieved by plotting the water sorption isotherm as a function of RH and fitting to a modified BET type equation [33]. This can provide information about the surface affinity for water and the hydrophilic surface area, parameters... 

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