ADSORPTION ON FRACTAL STRUCTURES - APPLICATIONS TO CEMENT MATERIALS

Adsorption isotherm measurements are widely used to characterize the p ore structure of cement materials. Recent experimental evidence sugges ts that the cement gel displays a fractal structure. In this paper we investigate the possibility of observing effects of the fractal struct ure in sorption isotherms. Some water and nitrogen sorption measuremen ts were analysed in terms of a recently proposed theory for capillary condensation in fractal pores. We discuss the advantages and shortcomi ngs of this kind of analysis. At least in some cases the effective dim ensions obtained from sorption isotherms show satisfactory agreement w ith fractal dimensions of cement materials as determined by other meth ods.