Diffusion in mesoporous materials and polymers swelling: a transient calorimetric approach

The diffusion of water and benzene has been followed by DSC using the thermoporosimetry (TPM) approach. The diffusion of water has been observed during the drying of a water impregnated mesoporous silica gel at 40 degrees C under dry air. It was found that the confinement affects the evaporation rate of water. The diffusion of benzene has been observed during the drying and the swelling of a cross linked PDMS sample. The mesh size distributions (MSD) of the elastomer, during swelling and drying, have been calculated at various times using the TPM formalism. Extrapolating the mean mesh size of the polymeric network, it was found that the dry polymer has an average mesh of about 2.5 nm.