Combining Nitrogen, Argon, and Water Adsorption for Advanced Characterization of Ordered Mesoporous Carbons (CMKs) and Periodic Mesoporous Organosilicas (PMOs)

Ordered mesoporous CMK carbons and periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials have been characterized by combining nitrogen (77.4 K) and argon (87.3 K) adsorption with recently developed quenched solid density functional theory (QSDFT). Systematic, high-resolution water adsorption experiments have been performed in the temperature range from 298 to 318 K in order to ascertain the effect of surface chemistry (using periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) of given pore size) and pore size/pore geometry (using CMK-3, CMK-8 carbons) on the adsorption, pore filling, condensation and hysteresis behavior. These data reveal how the interplay between confined geometry effects and the strength of the adsorption forces influence the adsorption, wetting, and phase behavior of pore fluids. Further, our results indicate that water adsorption is quite sensitive to both small changes in pore structure and surface chemistry, showing the potential of water adsorption as a powerful complementary tool for the characterization of nanoporous solids.