Water adsorption and desorption isotherms of silica and alumina mesoporous molecular sieves

Mesoporous molecular sieves of silica, and alumina, and porous materials of titania, zirconia, and niobia were synthesized by cationic and/or neutral templating methods. These porous materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherms and water adsorption-desorption isotherms. Mesoporous molecular sieves of silica with surface areas of 956 and 1072 m²/g and of alumina with surface area of 407 m²/g were synthesized. The Ti, Zr and Nb oxide porous materials, however, showed smaller surface areas of 258, 178, and 77 m²/g, respectively, after calcination at 300°C and exhibited only small peaks for mesopores as determined by the pore-size distributions. Water adsorption-desorption isotherms of silica and alumina mesoporous molecular sieves showed Type V (weak interaction) and Type IV isotherms, respectively. The property of sudden filling of mesopores in the P/P₀ range of 0.45 to 0.55 in silica mesoporous molecular sieves with well-defined hysteresis during desorption, can be used in the design of humidity sensors. The titania, zirconia and niobia porous materials showed Type I water adsorption-desorption isotherms which suggests that these are mainly microporous. These results suggest that water adsorption-desorption isotherms provide valuable information about mesoporous molecular sieves for their potential use as humidity sensors.