Analysis of the Textural Characteristics and Pore Size Distribution of a Commercial Zeolite using Various Adsorption Models

Analysis of the textural characteristics and pore size distribution of a commercial zeolite (Sigma Aldrich, product No. 96096) have been conducted experimentally using a surface analyzer by measuring the N2 adsorption isotherm at 77 K. The resulting data were fitted to several well-known adsorption models, i.e., the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) model, the de Boer model, the Dubinin-Redushkevich (DR) model, the Barret, -Joyner-Halenda (BJH) model, the Horvath-Kawazoe (HK) model and the Density Functional Theory (DFT) model. The zeolite was found to be highly microporous with a BET surface area of 609 m2 g-1. The HK model is rather limited in terms of pore volume distribution analysis and not appropriate for analysis of nanoporous materials that exhibit a wide porosity range compared to BJH and DFT model that cover much wider range (micropore, mesopore and macropore) than HK model that cover until micropore range.