Probing Adsorption, Pore Condensation, and Hysteresis Behavior of Pure Fluids in Three-Dimensional Cubic Mesoporous KIT-6 Silica

In order to investigate the details of the process of pore condensation and hysteresis mechanisms in three-dimensional (3-D) pore networks, we performed a systematic study of the adsorption and pore condensation behavior of N 2 (77.4 K) and Ar (77.4 and 87.3 K) in a 3-D ordered pore system, i.e., cubic Ia 3̅ d mesoporous KIT-6 silica materials with mode pore diameters ranging from ca. 5 nm up to 11 nm. KIT-6 silica is a porous material composed of two intertwined mesoporous subnetworks similar as in MCM-48, but this material can be prepared with much larger mean pore diameters. Accurate pore size analysis was performed by X-ray diffraction modeling and by state-of the art application of nonlocal density functional theory (NLDFT) on N 2 (77.4 K) and Ar (87.3 K) sorption data. Furthermore, our data suggest that the width of the adsorption/desorption hysteresis loop observed for 3-D KIT-6 silica can be narrower as compared to that of pseudo-one-dimensional SBA-15 silica of the same pore size (i.e., in the pore diameter range from 6 to 8 nm). This specific behavior correlates well with the existence of the highly interconnected 3-D pore network of the KIT-6 material. Moreover, the results of our investigations are also consistent with previous observations that the SBA-15 pore system becomes more and more interconnected with increasing aging temperatures, i.e., SBA-15 changes from being a material with a pseudo-one-dimensional mesopore system to a material exhibiting a three-dimensional pore system resembling KIT-6 silica. These results provide new insights into the effects of pore interconnectivity on pore condensation and hysteresis behavior in both KIT-6 and SBA-15 silica materials and enable a more thorough understanding of the pore structure and textural properties of these materials.