GCMC simulation of argon adsorption in wedge shaped mesopores of finite length

We have used Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulation to study argon adsorption at 87 K in wedge shaped mesopores. The structural parameters, including mean pore size, wall length and wedge angle, were varied to investigate their effects on the size, shape and the position of the hysteresis loop. Although the effects of pore size have been studied previously, the wall length and wedge angle have received little attention. We find that the wedge angle can have a significant effect on the existence, position, size and shape of the hysteresis loop, while the wall length affects the adsorptive capacity associated with the loop and the behaviour of the isotherm beyond the loop. The results of this work have far-reaching consequences for the characterization of pore size distribution where it is commonly assumed, when constructing a kernel of local isotherms, that pore size is uniform, since even a small deviation from a constant pore width can shift the condensation and evaporation pressures significantly and thus lead to an incorrect estimation of pore size

On the hysteresis loop and equilibrium transition in slit-shaped ink-bottle pores

Bin grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out to study adsorption-desorption of argon at 87.3 K in a model ink-bottle mesoporous solid in order to investigate the interplay between the pore blocking process, controlled by the evaporation through the pore mouth via the meniscus separating the adsorbate and the bulk gas surroundings, and the cavitation process, governed by the instability of the stretched fluid (with a decrease in pressure) in the cavity. The evaporation mechanism switches from pore blocking to cavitation when the size of the pore neck is decreased, and is relatively insensitive to the neck length under conditions where cavitation is the controlling mechanism. We have applied the recently-developed Mid-Density scheme to determine the equilibrium branch of the hysteresis loop, and have found that, unlike ideal simple pores of constant size and infinite length, where the equilibrium transition is vertical, the equilibrium branch of an ink-bottle pore has three distinct sub-branches within the hysteresis loop. The first sub-branch is steep but continuous and is close to the desorption branch (which is typical for a pore with two open ends); this is associated with the equilibrium state in the neck. The third sub-branch is much steeper and is close to the adsorption branch (which is typical for either a pore with one end closed or a closed pore), and is associated with the equilibrium state in the cavity. The second sub-branch, connecting the other two sub-branches, has a more gradual slope. The domains of these three sub-branches depend on the relative sizes of the cavity and the neck, and their respective lengths. Our investigation of the effects of changing neck length clearly demonstrates that cavitation depends, not only on fluid properties, as frequently stated, but also on pore geometry