(211b) Advances in the characterization of  porous materials for applications in chromatography

During the last two decades, major progress has been made concerning the textural characterisation of porous materials in the gas/dry phase by methods such as gas adsorption and mercury porosimetry. The main drawback of these methods stems from their inability to test wet materials (i.e. in presence of the liquid/mobile phase), thus providing no direct information concerning the state of the stationary phase in typical chromatographic operations. Hence, there is a need to assess the surface area and accessible pore structure in the liquid phase. This is particularly important for functionalised porous materials, where the interaction of surface functional groups with the chosen liquid may affect the effective surface area and pore characteristics for separation processes. Within this context we will report results obtained by the application of novel methodologies based on NMR relaxation measurements, which allow one to characterize solvated porous materials, in combination with complimentary methods based on advanced gas adsorption and liquid intrusion for a comprehensive textural and surface characterization of nanoporous materials.