Liquid intrusion and alternative methods for the characterization of macroporous materials (IUPAC Technical Report)

This document deals with the characterization of porous materials having pore widths in the macropore range of 50 nm to 500 μm. In recent years, the development of advanced adsorbents and catalysts (e.g., monoliths having hierarchical pore networks) has brought about a renewed interest in macropore structures. Mercury intrusion–extrusion porosimetry is a well-established method, which is at present the most widely used for determining the macropore size distribution. However, because of the reservations raised by the use of mercury, it is now evident that the principles involved in the application of mercury porosimetry require reappraisal and that alternative methods are worth being listed…