title: Probing the structure of porous pellets: an NMR study of drying.
abstract: Partially saturated porous catalyst support pellets have been studied using NMR relaxation, PGSE, and imaging techniques. Spatially nonresolved PGSE data were acquired as a function of the fractional saturation of the pellets during drying. Combination of these data with an estimate of the width of the pore-size distribution, as determined by mercury porosimetry, and the results of numerical simulations of diffusion in a random pore network enabled predictions of the connectivity of the pore structure to be determined. NMR imaging was shown to be effective in discriminating between different models of drying; even when the bulk drying curves are similar, significantly different moisture redistribution phenomena are seen to occur.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Hollewand
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Gladden
mesh_terms: D003890:Desiccation; D004058:Diffusion; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D016062:Porosity