Surface fractal dimension, definition

There are two conventional definitions in describing the fractality of porous material - the pore fractal dimension which represents the pore distribution irregularity56,59,62 and the surface fractal dimension which characterizes the pore surface irregularity.56,58,65 Since the geometry and structure of the pore surfaces are closely related to the electro-active surface area which plays a key role in the increases of capacity and rate capability in practical viewpoint, the microstructures of the pores have been quantitatively characterized by many researchers based upon the fractal theory. 

Studies have shown that the definition formula of surface fractal dimension is as follows ... 

Porous materials have attracted considerable attention in their application in electrochemistry due to their large surface area. As indicated in Section I, there are two conventional definitions concerning with the fractality of the porous material, i.e., surface fractal and pore fractal.9"11 The pore fractal dimension represents the pore size distribution irregularity the larger the value of the pore fractal dimension is, the narrower is the pore size distribution which exhibits a power law behavior. The pore fractal dimensions of 2 and 3 indicate the porous electrode with homogeneous pore size distribution and that electrode composed of the almost samesized pores, respectively. 

Note that fractals (self-similar sets with fractal dimension) were first studied and described by mathematicians long before the publications of Mandelbrot, when such fundamental definitions as function, line, surface, and shape were analyzed. 

Mandelbrot introduced a new geometry in a book, which was first published in French in 1975, with a revised English edition [64] in 1977. In 1983 he published an extended and revised edition that he considered to be the definitive text [65]. Essentially he stated that there are regions between a straight line that has a dimension of 1, a surface that has a dimension of 2 and a volume that has a dimension of 3, and these regions have fractional dimensions between these integer limits. Kaye has presented an excellent review of the importance of fractal geometry in particle characterization [66]. 

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