Kinetics of water vapor sorption on porous glass as a method of porometry

Abstract

Equilibrium low temperature nitrogen adsorption and a new method based on the kinetics of water vapor sorption at room temperature are used for a comparative study of pore morphology of high-silica porous glass. The values of the total pore volume, the specific surfaces, the effective mesopore diameters, and the fraction of each mode in the total mesopore volume are established using both techniques. It is found that the rate of water vapor sorption at constant pressure grows in inverse ratio to the diameter of cylindrical menisci in pores. The time dependence of the volume of adsorbed water is linear, while the characteristic time of filling for each pore mode varies directly with the square of the effective pore mode diameter. The proposed new kinetic porometry technique based on analyzing water vapor adsorption kinetics at room temperature is quite simple as it requires no complicated vacuum equipment and allows the simultaneous examination of large numbers of porous material samples.