Adsorption and desorption isotherms at ambient temperature obtained by ellipsometric porosimetry to probe micropores in ordered mesoporous silica films

Ellipsometric Porosimetry is a non destructive technique well adapted to the measurement of isotherms of porous thin films. We present results obtained on ordered mesoporous silica films prepared by surfactant templating methods. Although the applications of such films require knowledge of mesoporous network, the micropores, which remain uncontrolled during the film elaboration, could play a main role in the film properties and then need to be characterized. We take advantage of the ability of our experiment to perform isotherms with different organic adsorptives of different sizes (branched or linear molecules) in order to probe micropores in these ordered mesoporous silica films.