Simple geometric pore structure

Permeability, which characterizes the ability of rocks to allow the movement of fluids contained in their pores, is one of the most important parameters describing the porous media. Normally, in order to measure the permeability, the sample must have a simple geometric shape (e.g. cylinder or cube) and certain dimensions. On the other hand, measurements of porosity, pore-size distribution, and specific surface area do not require special geometric dimensions. The correlations among permeability and other easier-to-measure parameters, therefore, have been studied theoretically and experimentally. In practice, the most often reported correlation is that between the permeability and porosity The coefficient of correlation for porosity-permeability relationship varies from sample to sample, with a better correlation if the porosity used in the calculation is measured when a core contains the irreducible fluid. Porosity does not reflect the number and width of fractures, the pore sizes and topological structure, whereas the specific surface area does. Thus, it appears advisable to relate permeability simultaneously to porosity, specific surface area, irreducible water/oil saturation, grain size/pore size/throat size distribution, tortuosity, etc. 

Fig. 4 shows two STM images of the surface structure of a carbon black. The sample exhibits a specific surface area, determined by N2 adsorption at 77 K, of 15.3 m g, which is almost coincident with its geometric area (16.9 m g ). Therefore, this is a nonporous carbon and its STM images should be expected to differ from those of the ACFs. As a matter of fact, this is what can be observed in Fig. 4. First, it is noted that the carbon black does not display any mesoporosity (Fig. 4a) such as that of the AFCs (Fig. 2). Second, at the micropore scale the carbon black porosity is also very poorly developed (Fig. 4b) in comparison with the pore development of ACFs (e.g.. Fig. 3a). In the former case (Fig. 4b), altough some trenches are also present, they are very shallow and, consequently, are simple topographic variations of a smooth surface and cannot be considered as pores penetrating deeply into the material as in Fig. 3a. Also, pores of the type shown in Fig. 3b for the ACFs were not normally seen on the carbon black surface. Hence, all these observations agree with the lack of adsorption capabilities of this material.

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