Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
We study, by means of Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations, the effect of disorder in pore morphology and topology on adsorption of simple fluids at 77 K. We consider the case of microporous carbons and mesoporous silicas. For both systems, we found that morphological and topological disorder affects the adsorption isotherm. Consequently, we show that complex porous networks cannot be modeled as a collection of unconnected pores of simple geometry. In the case of microporous carbons, the isosteric heat of adsorption for disordered systems differs significantly from that obtained for an assembly of unconnected slit pores. In contrast, the isosteric heat of adsorption for the disordered mesoporous silica sample compares reasonably well with that observed for a silica material having regular cylindrical pores.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK