The effect of the choice of pore model on the characterization of the internal structure of microporous carbons using pore size distributions Original Research Article

Microporous carbons are typically characterized as a pore size distribution of slit-shaped model pores. Since these characterizations are used to interpret physical properties such as the degree of microporosity, adsorption behaviour, molecular sieving and effective diffusivities it is important to determine how the choice of the model pore used in the analysis affects the characterization. The effect of using square and rectangular model pores to determine pore size distributions was investigated. It was found that using these pores leads to significantly different pore size distributions and we have identified the underlying cause for these differences. It was also found that any measures based on the average pore size should be used with caution since they are sensitive to the actual shape of the model pore used in the pore size distribution analysis.