Characterization of active carbons: The influence of the method in the determination of the pore size distribution

摘要

The problem of the characterization of microporous solids is a complex one and several methods are currently used to obtain the volume of micropores and the pore size distribution. In the case of amorphous materials, like activated carbons, these methods give different results when they are applied to a particular solid. In this work some of these methods (Horvath-Kawazoe method, Dubinin-Radushkevich equation and density functional theory) are used to analyze a complete set of adsorption isotherms obtained for a series of the same activated carbon with different burning degrees and the different predictions of such methods are compared and discussed. Furthermore, a test for the characterization methods by Monte Carlo Simulation is designed in order to achieve a better understanding of the observed deviations. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. [References: 19]