Probing Patchy Saturation of Fluids in Nanoporous Media by Ultrasound

Nanoporous materials provide high surface area per unit mass and are capable of fluids adsorption. While the measurements of overall amount of fluid adsorbed by a nanopororus sample are straightforward, probing the fluid spacial distribution is non-trivial. We consider published data on adsorption and desorption of fluids in nanoporous glasses reported along with the measurements of ultrasonic waves propagation. We analyse these using Biot's theory of dynamic poroelasticity, approximating the patches as spherical shells. Our calculations show that on adsorption the patch diameter is on the order of 10-20 pore diameters, while on desorption the patch size is comparable to the sample size. Our analysis suggests that one can employ ultrasound to probe the uniformity of fluid spatial distribution in nanoporous materials.