Chapter 13: NMR and Complementary Approaches to Establishing Structure–Transport Relationships in Disordered Porous Solids Check Access

This chapter describes the contribution that NMR techniques can make to understanding the structure–transport relationships for mass transport, ranging from the molecular scale to the pore network scale, within disordered porous media. In particular, it considers the deuteron NMR, magnetic resonance imaging, pulsed-field gradient NMR diffusometry, and NMR cryodiffusometry techniques, as well as relevant aspects of complementary gas sorption and mercury porosimetry methods. Special emphasis has been given to the pore–pore co-operative effects, that are an idiosyncratic feature of the physical processes involved in the characterization of disordered (i.e. non-model) materials, to show how, rather than limiting accuracy as might be anticipated, they can be used to extract information on the spatial arrangement and connectivity of pores of different sizes in amorphous materials. This chapter attempts to resolve the controversy existing over the characterization of disordered porous solids.