Chemistry, Physics and Technology of Surface

ISSN 2518-1238 (Online), ISSN 2079-1704 (Print)

The aim of this study was to compare a variety of methods to describe the textural characteristics of various materials. Several ways could be used to describe the morphological and textural characteristics of various materials in detail such as: (i) adsorption-desorption of low-molecular weight probe compounds (N₂, CO₂, Ar, C₆H₆, H₂O, etc.) in the gaseous (vapor) phase with increasing-decreasing pressure; (ii) adsorption of low- or high-molecular weight compounds from liquid solutions with increasing concentration of a solute; (iii) small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) or small angle neutron scattering (SANS); (iv) quantitative analysis of images recorded using TEM, SEM, AFM, CLSM, etc.; (v) thermoporometry based on DSC or TG measurements with decreasing-increasing temperature; (vi) cryoporometry based on NMR spectroscopy measurements vs. temperature; and (vii) relaxometry based on NMR spectroscopy and thermally stimulated depolarization current measurements. There are several reasons of the use of mentioned above methods in parallel. For example, a material, which is strongly hydrated in native state, can strongly change the texture upon drying; thus, it should be studied in both states. Various adsorbates can penetrate into different pores or differently fill pores of different sizes that should be taken into account upon the analyses of various data. There are accessible and inaccessible pores (such as closed or too narrow for used adsorbate molecules), but SAXS can give information on all pores in contrast to the adsorption methods. Thus, the larger the number of applied methods, the more comprehensive the morphological and textural characterization of the adsorbents, and this is clearly shown below.

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