Relationship between pore volumes and surface areas derived from the evaluation of N2-sorption data by DR-, BET- and t-plot

Three of the most common methods to analyze sorption isotherms with respect to micropore volume and specific surface, respectively, are the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) theory, established for the specific surface area of meso- and macroporous materials, the t-plot-method, which separates micropore from multilayer adsorption and the micropore analysis based on the work of Dubinin and Radushkevich (DR). While BET-analysis is assumed to be sensitive to multilayer adsorption on the external surface area, the DR-method is expected to be in particular sensitive to the micropores. However, the data for a series of synthetic carbons investigated reveal that the values derived by both methods are equivalent, despite the different underlying assumptions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.