Comparison of Nitrogen Adsorption and Mercury Penetration Results: II. Pore size Distributions Calculated from Type IV Isotherm Data

Abstract

The pore distributions calculated from nitrogen desorption and from mercury penetration data are similar for the four materials utilized in this study. While there are small differences in the distributions calculated using different models (Cohan. Foster or Broekhoff-deBoer) with nitrogen adsorption or desorption isotherm data, all three show reasonable agreement with distributions calculated from mercury penetration data. Frequently practical catalysts have such a broad pore size distribution that neither method alone is adequate to measure the total pore size range. The present results suggest a direct comparison, without recourse to a scaling factor, is appropriate when comparing results from the two methods even though the pore size distribution maximum may vary by at least 50% depending upon the model chosen for the calculation. Better agreement may be obtained between the two experimental techniques by adjusting either the nitrogen adsorption data using a packed sphere model or the mercury penetration data by an earlier reported correction ratio. The difference between the two methods becomes less than 20% when a correction procedure is used; however, further studies are needed to define the range of material shaped that these procedures are applicable to.