Adsorption and desorption of a wetting fluid in Vycor studied by acoustic and optical techniques.

Abstract

We study the adsorption and desorption of hexane in porous Vycor, as the ambient vapor pressure is varied, through sorption isotherm, ultrasonic velocity and attenuation, and light scattering measurements. On adsorption, we show that the fluid fills the pore space uniformly until capillary condensation occurs; however, small, randomly distributed, vapor bubbles remain, as detected by a large increase in the attenuation of the ultrasound. On desorption, the mismatch in the index of refraction between the empty pores and the surrounding filled pores leads to intense scattering of light that reveals the presence of long-range correlations in the pore space. These correlations have a fractal dimension of 2.6, which is very near the value predicted for invasion percolation. Finally, we also investigate the time dependence of the changes in the adsorbed fluid mass and use these measurements to identify three distinct regimes with vastly differing mechanisms for mass transport. The results presented here provide information on the differences in pore-space correlations on filling and drainage, and highlight the critical role of the connectivity of the pores to the surface in determining the desorption behavior.