US EPA

4957964 

Journal Article 

Mercury porosimetry applied to precipitated silica 

Pirard, R; Pirard, JP 

2000 

1 

Studies in surface science and catalysis
ISSN: 0167-2991 

STUDIES IN SURFACE SCIENCE AND CATALYSIS 

128 

603-611 

WOS:000166937400064 

Some materials, among the most porous, show a large volume variation due to mechanical compaction when submitted to mercury porosimetry. High dispersive precipitated silica shows, as low density xerogels and carbon black previously experimented, two successive volume variation mechanisms, compaction and intrusion. The position of the transition point between the two mechanisms allows to compute the buckling constant used to determine the pore size distribution in the compaction part of the experiment. The mercury porosimetry data of a high dispersive precipitated silica sample wrapped in a tight membrane are compared with the data obtained with the same sample without membrane. Both experiments interpreted by equations appropriate to the mechanisms lead to the same pore size distribution.