Porometry

Porometry

Porometry allows the determination of pore size distributions as well as gas and liquid permeability and bubble points of through-pore systems such as filters, membranes and papers.

Capillary flow porometry

Standard capillary flow porometry is useful to characterize the pore structure of materials such as membranes, filter media, ceramics, paper, textile and similar materials. A non-toxic liquid is let spontaneously fill the pores in the sample and a non-reacting gas displaces the liquid from pores by increasing the gas pressure. First the larger pores will get emptied, as the pressure increases more and more smaller pores are progressively emptied. The pressure and flow rate of the gas through the emptied pores provides the through pore distribution and the first detectable flow pressure defines the so called bubble point, which is related to the maximum pore size in a sample.

Liquid-liquid porometry (LLP)

For materials with very small pores (<20 nm) or for materials which don't withstand relatively high pressures, liquid-liquid porometry (LLP) might be the better choice. It is a valuable technique for measuring the pore structure characteristics of ultrafiltration membranes. Such membranes can act as barriers to particles, including bacteria, pollens, spores, or pesticides. Furthermore, LLP is capable of measuring pore diameters, pore size distribution and liquid flow rates of materials that have very low permeability. Typical examples are reverse osmosis membranes, nanofiltration membranes, blood purification membranes or battery separators. Very low liquid permeability is measured fully automated for pore diameters down to 3 nm and the needed pressures are much less than those for standard capillary flow porometer.

Innova series

The 3P Innova series capillary flow porometer is a thorough pore size analyzer for porous materials which accurately measures the crucial microporous characteristics such as narrow pore size, maximum pore size, pore size distribution, liquid permeability, gas permeability, and external surface area. Currently, no other measuring instrument is capable to do all the measurements in a single system.