Thermoporosimetry and Pore Size Distribution Measurement

In a thermoporosimetry experiment, the whole DSC curve is indeed representative of the pore size distribution of a given sample. From Equation 10.5 and the DSC thermogram, the pore size distribution (PSD) can be derived as follows  

As state before, TPM remains a secondary technique requiring calibration. The extraordinary progress in the preparation of porous materials with well-controlled pore sizes during the last 20 years is now circumventing this problem. Comparison of PSD derived from gas sorption, TPM, and NMR cryoporometry [18, 19] clearly demonstrates the validity of TPM for the study of nanoporous materials. 

Various solvents have been calibrated to provide data for TPM measurements. The first studies dealt essentially with water and benzene. In the 1990s Jackson and McKenna published data for n-heptane, cis- and trans-decaline, cyclohexane, naphthalene, and chlorobenzene [20]. 

In recent years, numerous solvents have been calibrated for thermoporosimetry. In 2004 Wulf published some data on acetonitrile [21] and extensive work has been performed in our group for CCI4 [22, 23], xylenes, various substituted benzenes [24], linear alkanes [25, 26], cyclohexane [27], dioxane [Unpublished results], and acetone [28]. 

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