Hysteresis Critical Point of Nitrogen in Porous Glass: Occurrence of Sample Spanning Transition in Capillary Condensation

Abstract

To examine the mechanisms for capillary condensation and for capillary evaporation in porous glass, we measured the hysteresis critical points and desorption scanning curves of nitrogen in four kinds of porous glasses with different pore sizes (Vycor, CPG75A, CPG120A, and CPG170A). The shapes of the hysteresis loop in the adsorption isotherm of nitrogen for the Vycor and the CPG75A changed with temperature, whereas those for the CPG120A and the CPG170A remained almost unchanged with temperature. The hysteresis critical points for the Vycor and the CPG75A fell on the common line observed previously for ordered mesoporous silicas. On the other hand, the hysteresis critical points for the CPG120A and the CPG170A deviated appreciably from the common line. This strongly suggests that capillary evaporation of nitrogen in the interconnected and disordered pores of both the Vycor and the CPG75A follows a cavitation process at least in the vicinity of their hysteresis critical temperatures in the same way as that in the cagelike pores of the ordered silicas, whereas the hysteresis critical points in the CPG120A and the CPG170A have origin different from that in the cagelike pores. The desorption scanning curves for the CPG75A indicated the nonindependence of the porous domains. On the other hand, for both the CPG120A and the CPG170A, we obtained the scanning curves that are expected from the independent domain theory. All these results suggest that sample spanning transitions in capillary condensation and evaporation take place inside the interconnected pores of both the CPG120A and the CPG170A.