Determination of the percolation properties and pore connectivity for mesoporous solids using NMR cryodiffusometry

Using a model disordered mesoporous solid with a spatial arrangement of pore sizes analogous to a macroscopic ink-bottle, the hysteresis obsd. in NMR cryoporometry can be deconvoluted into sep. single pore and pore-blocking contributions. The suggestion of pore-blocking effects was confirmed using PFG NMR. Hence, percolation theory was used, for the 1st time with cryoporometry, to analyze the pore-blocking contribution to the hysteresis to det. the accessibility function and pore connectivity of the void space of a mesoporous sol-gel SiO2 catalyst support pellet. NMR cryoporometry can be used to obtain a full range of void space descriptors, and thus offers a full, and potentially better understood, complementary pore structure characterization method to gas sorption and Hg porosimetry.