A method for the determination of accessible surface area, pore volume, pore size and its volume distribution for homogeneous pores of different shapes

We develop a novel method to determine the accessible pore volume, the accessible pore size and its distribution for pores having homogeneous surfaces but taking an arbitrary shape. The accessible pore volume is essentially the volume space that is accessible to the centre of an adsorbate molecule, while the accessible pore size is defined by the largest sphere that can be accommodated in the accessible space. The size of this sphere depends on the point in the accessible volume that we select. The accessible pore size is therefore, a local variable and this means that even a geometrically simple pore can possess many sizes. Each local accessible pore size is associated with a local accessible pore volume and the relationship between this pore volume and pore size is called the accessible pore size distribution. In this paper, we illustrate this methodology with a number of model pores ranging from simple to complex geometry and present the analytical accessible pore size distribution.