| Abstract
| - In the present work the meso- and macrostructural characteristics of the recently developed modelmesoporous adsorbent MCM-41, of different pore diameters, prepared in our laboratory, have been estimatedwith the help of various techniques. The structure is found to comprise four different length scalesthoseof the mesopores, the crystallites, the grains, and the particles. It was also found that the surface areaestimated by the use of small angle scattering techniques is higher, while that estimated by mercuryporosimetry is much lower, than that obtained from gas adsorption methods. On the basis of the macroporecharacterization by mercury porosimetry, and the considerable macropore area determined, it is seen thatthe actual mesopore area of MCM-41 may be significantly lower than the BET area. TEM studies indicatedthat even though MCM-41 does not have an ideal mesopore structure (because of the presence of curvedpore channels), it may still be treated as a model mesoporous material for gas adsorption studies becauseof the large radius of curvature of the channels.
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