Jul 8 2007
Quantachrome introduces a new and accurate pore size calculation method for geometrically- and chemically-heterogeneous porous carbons. This novel Quenched Solid Density Functional Theory, or QSDFT, was developed in collaboration with Prof. Alex Neimark of Rutgers University and Dr Peter Ravikovitch (formerly TRI Princeton). In contrast to previous models applicable only to molecularly smooth carbons, the new QSDFT method takes into account the effects of surface roughness and chemical heterogeneity. As a consequence, the resulting QSDFT pore size distributions are more reliable, and can be applied with greater confidence to nanocarbons and industrially important activated carbons and activated carbon fibers.
This new application will be presented for the first time in public by Prof. Neimark as a keynote lecture in the upcoming International Carbon Conference CARBON 2007 to be held in Seattle, Washington from July 15 to July 20, 2007. This new QSDFT model is also available commercially in Quantachrome's simultaneous release of its latest ASWin software version 1.54, Analysis and Data Reduction program for the Autosorb-1 surface area and pore size analyzer.
According to Dr Matthias Thommes, Quantachrome's Director of Applied Science and co-author of the cited keynote lecture, the option of applying DFT methods for carbon pore size analysis based on the same slit-pore geometry, but assuming different surface chemistries, "...allows one to assess the reliability of the pore size analysis of unknown carbons."