Porous volume of inorganic materials and degree of swelling of elastomers monitored by DSC measurements

Strong analogies between inorganic porous materials and polymeric swollen gels have been demonstrated. The thermoporosimetry technique, based on the shift of the transition temperature for a confined solvent with respect to free solvent, has been applied in determining the degree of swelling in elastomers. Prior to this study, the validity of the method was demonstrated for determining the total porous volume of mesoporous silica gels. Sequential addition of solvent to the sample allows for the precise measurement of the total porous volume, and the values obtained agree well with the ones derived from gas sorption. Thermoporosimetry appears to be a very unique tool to study polymeric swollen gels and allows not only the measurement of the degree of swelling but also the mesh size distribution in a one-step easy experiment.