Definition:
Open structured materials having a pore size distribution within the range of 2-50 nm in diameter.
This type of material often has mass-normalized surfaced areas of 200-500 m2/gram. For mental comparison, ordinary sheet glass (or a microscope slide) has an effective surface area of about 10 m2/gram, and you can't add more noticeable surface area by making the glass thicker. However, a mesoporous material gets more and more surface area added as you make a thicker film of it. Porous materials can be thought of as sponges, or as a solution of surface.
So why isn't it called nanoporous?
Mesoporous was a term defined well before the fashion arrived to term everything with a characteristic length feature below 1 micrometer: nano-. The conventionally defined and accepted size distributions are:
1. Microporous: pores <2 nm in diameter
2. Mesoporous: pores between 2 and 50 nm in diameter
3. Macroporous: pores > 50nm in diameter
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.