Webinar:: Helium Adsorption, New Pore Size Fitting, and Synthesis Solutions for Porous Carbons

The material pore structure, surface area, and quality are sensitive to the synthetic conditions used. Accurate quantification of gas adsorption in microporous materials requires precise free space measurement, yet conventional approaches using helium often introduce substantial errors. Gravimetric methods suffer from buoyancy correction issues at cryogenic temperatures, while manometric measurements rely on free space calibration typically performed with helium at liquid nitrogen temperature under the assumption of negligible He adsorption. This assumption is not true for microporous materials, leading to systematic underestimation of adsorption capacity. Pore size distributions are usually calculated using GCMC or DFT models, but systematically display false artifacts around 1 nm due to Tikhonov regularization which results in inaccurately narrow distribution of micropores. With Microtrac gas adsorption analyzers, a new free space determination method and Bayesian fitting model greatly improve the characterization of activated carbons and biochars that previously could not be solved.

Dr. Garrett Taggart received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Delaware researching novel Metal-Organic Frameworks. His expertise is in structure characterization using NMR, electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and gas adsorption instrumentation. He is now the North American technical expert for Microtracs’s adsorption equipment, providing advanced training, analysis, service support, and research collaborations for material researchers in the USA and Canada.

Michael Hager, Business Unit Manager for our Carbolite Gero product line at Verder Scientific Inc, graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in Material Science & Engineering and has extensive knowledge in Heat Treatment in laboratory settings.