The physical properties of 3-D porous solids are defined by their molecular geometry. Hence, precise control of pore size, pore shape, and pore connectivity are needed to tailor them for specific applications. However, for porous molecular crystals, the modification of pore size by adding pore-blocking groups can also affect crystal packing in an unpredictable way. This precludes strategies ado...

In this work, we present and characterise an experimental setup that allows the generation of porous packings from nanosuspensions. By defined positioning drying solid-containing droplets, large-scale structures can be generated. Examples such are shown characterised. Operational challenges presented, it is discussed how they overcome to allow maximum degree freedom in packing generation.

Flow within thick liquid films present owing to capillary effects in the pore space is of key importance in many multiphase flow applications in porous media, for example, drying or oil recovery processes. The viscous resistance to the flow is a key parameter for modelling fluid transport in such situations. It is well known for liquid films wetting the corners of tubes of polygonal cross-secti...

Recently proposed constitutive models that describe the mechanical behavior of open-porous cellular materials take into account random pore sizes but not randomness in shapes [1]. In present contribution, a computational model to reconstruct highly irregular structure porous is developed using sphere packing and Laguerre-Voronoi tessellation [2]. The structure-property relationship then investi...

Spray drying a mixture of silica and polystyrene latex (PSL) colloids above the decomposition temperature of PSL results in the formation of porous silica particles. By appropriate selection of the experimental conditions, such as the use of a tubular temperature, the weight fraction of colloids, and the flow rate of carrier gas, the resulting silica particles contain organized pores with a hex...

Electroosmotic flow (EOF) pumps with flow rates on the order of 1 ml/min have been designed and fabricated. These pumps use EOF to propel liquid solutions in a compact system with no moving parts. The pumping chamber is filled with densely packed non-porous silica particles, and the particle bed is held in place using two polymeric porous frits. The pump frame is made of acrylic, the frits are ...

Sustainable synthesis schemes for the production of porous carbons with appropriate textural properties for use as supercapacitor electrodes are in high demand. In this work a greener option to the widely used but corrosive KOH is proposed for the production of highly porous carbons. Hydrochar products are used as carbon precursors. It is demonstrated that a mild alkaline potassium salt such as...

The newly developed “void expansion method” allows for an efficient generation of porous packings of spherical particles over a wide range of volume fractions using the discrete element method. Particles are randomly placed under addition of much smaller “void-particles”. Then, the void-particle radius is increased repeatedly, thereby rearranging the structural particles until formation of a de...