(662d) Rapid Characterization Of Porous Materials By Thermal Response Measurements

Nitrogen physisorption at 77 K is a common and versatile method for the characterization of porous materials. But a drawback is the usually long measurement time that is needed for a single experiment. For a rapid characterization of porous materials, the thermal response method is presented. Thereby a porous sample is exposed to a test gas and its temperature change caused by the release of the heat of adsorption is measured in real-time using an optical temperature sensor [1-3].
The measured thermal response curve is analyzed and information on the materials adsorption properties can be obtained. In this way, with the recently introduced infraSORP high-throughput screening tool, up to 12 samples can be simultaneously tested for their adsorption capacity and specific surface area. Further, a novel infraSORP test setup enables access to adsorption kinetics, pore structure and the isotherm characteristics of a sample within some minutes of test time [3]. As an example for the various possibilities of the method, several experimental results using different porous materials and test gases are presented but also the limitations of the method will be discussed.

[1]   P. Wollmann, M. Leistner, U. Stoeck, R. Grünker, K. Gedrich et al.., Chem Commun 2011;47:5151-5153.
[2]   P. Wollmann, M. Leistner, W. Grählert, O. Throl, F. Dreisbach et al. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 2012;149:86 - 94. 
[3]   M. Leistner, W. Grählert, S. Kaskel, Chemie Ingenieur Technik, DOI: 10.1002/cite.201200119.