Physical adsorption and heat of immersion studies of microporous carbons

Physisorption and heat of immersion measurements have been made with two microporous carbons—a sample of charcoal cloth (BET area, 1250 m² g^?1; pore volume, 0.59 cm³ g^?1 having predominantly narrow micropores and a sample of Amoco carbon (BET area, 3700 m² g^?1; pore volume, 1.9 cm³ g^?1), having a wider distribution of micropores extending into the supermicropore range (pore width, ca. 1–2 nm). The adsorption isotherms of nitrogen and toluene are of Type 1 and reveal that the external surface of both samples is very small. The heat of immersion measurements were carried out with the aid of a Tian-Calvet microcalorimeter and with the following liquids: n-hexane, cyclohexane, neo-hexane, toluene, mesitylene and isodurene. A sample of non-porous graphitized carbon black (Vulcan 3G: BET area, 71.1 m² g^?1) was studied. Immersion calorimetry shows that in spite of the larger adsorptive capacity of the Amoco carbon, the sample of charcoal cloth has a higher adsorption affinity. The differences in the corresponding heats of immersion and in the adsorptive properties indicate that many of the pores in charcoal cloth are slit-shaped, whereas those in the Amoco carbon appear to be more cylindrical in shape.