About the Realistic Porosity of Porous Glasses

TLDR: In this paper, small-angle scattering experiments in combination with scanning electron microscopy have been performed to determine the texture properties of a selected mesoporous glass and a well-defined range order L ≈ 60 nm has been selected.

Abstract: Nitrogen adsorption, mercury intrusion, scanning electron microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering have been used to determine the texture properties of a selected mesoporous glass The glass has been prepared by a combined acid and alkaline leaching treatment of a phase separated sodium-borosilicate initial glass Residues of silica gel, remaining in the pores of the investigated glass after the treatment with alkaline solution, lead to differences in the results of the standard characterization techniques nitrogen adsorption and mercury intrusion In order to explain these differences, small-angle scattering experiments in combination with scanning electron microscopy have been performed Here, a well-defined range order L ≈ 60 nm has been selected and a 50% porosity results The behaviour of the second derivative of the small-angle scattering correlation function has been checked by the use of the linear simulation model