THE EFFECT OF THE CHOICE OF PORE MODEL ON THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THEINTERNAL STRUCTURE OF MICROPOROUS CARBONS USING PORE-SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS

Microporous carbons are typically characterized as a pore size distrib ution of slit-shaped model pores. Since these characterizations are us ed to interpret physical properties such as the degree of microporosit y, adsorption behaviour, molecular sieving and effective diffusivities it is important to determine how the choice of the model pore used in the analysis affects the characterization. The effect of using square and rectangular model pores to determine pore size distributions was investigated. It was found that using these pores leads to significant ly different pore size distributions and we have identified the underl ying cause for these differences. It was also found that any measures based on the average pore size should be used with caution since they are sensitive to the actual shape of the model pore used in the pore s ize distribution analysis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.