PORE STRUCTURE CHARACTERIZATION OF THIN-FILMS USING A SURFACE ACOUSTIC-WAVE VOLUMETRIC ADSORPTION TECHNIQUE

A surface acoustic wave/volumetric adsorption technique is employed to elucidate pore size, pore size distribution, and surface area of inorganic thin films. The technique has been adapted to a commercial bulk sample adsorption analyzer in order to span the characterization of nonporous, microporous, and mesoporous thin films. Nitrogen adsorption was measured on an uncoated surface-acoustic wave device, a mesoporous silica thin film, and a microporous silica thin film. In addition, carbon dioxide adsorption at several temperatures (196 K, 273 K) was used to probe the microporous silica thin film. Data are analyzed by commonly-used gas adsorption data reduction techniques including the BET, Kelvin/BJH, and Dubinin-Radushkevich methods.