catalyst preparation : Glycine and PVP assisted hydrothermal synthesis
Material : Perovskite
need to know whether the particles are porous or not
Due to covid-19 lockdown conditions, I am not able to perform TEM
I feel that having an idea of surface area will help you in determining the porosity of the tested samples. BET analysis is the best way to do that.
Well, by Image J software, pores can be calculated as told by one of the RG members in the post. I am not sure how accurate is this :
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_we_can_determine_average_pore_size_using_Imagej_software_in_FESEM_micrograph
In my opinion, porosity is generated by the preparation of void spaces between particles caused by the physical connection of particles. I can't see anything like that in this photo.
Dear Neha Chalottra , it is important to recognize between continuous and discontinue pores. The picture told me that there are discontinuous pores. This may really affect your conclusions as per your field of study.
BET is the reference analytical method for determination of the material porosity. I suggest that you use it.
I would say the particles do not appear to be porous at the microscale. They might be at the nanoscale, which can be observed using TEM.
As other people before I would also suggest BET, which will give you an idea of the exposed surface (including nano-porosity). This numerical number will also be easier to compare with other porous material in literature.
The texture of the particles' surface is not smooth which indicate the particles might have nano-pores which is not clear in this low magnification image (3000x).
An image at a magnification of about 20000x (easily possible in FESEM) will make it clear.
Best wishes..
The particles have certain cracks and breakages here and there. It does not clearly indicate porosity. Moreover, there are micoporous and nanoporous materials. For continuous and micro-scale pores, FESEM images can give you an idea. But, for discontinuous, nanoscale, or shallow pores the only reliable technique is BET analysis. Besides to have a further view on the as-generated cracks, I'd suggest microstrain measurements. Btw, if you really want to increase the porosity in your material, you may amend the (chemical) synthetic technique and reagents. Certain acids and salts help in it.
SEM, TEM, BET
The SEM image shows that your particles have a porosity .
But for scientifically investigating the porosity, you need to test this sample by using BET technique.
BET will give you quantitative analysis of the porosity types in your sample which is important for catalysis study.
Although TEM can give you other information related to the sample micro-structure, but BET is more significant than testing TEM.
Dear Ravish
it is difficult to get real idea of porosity from the above image. hence i suggest if it is essential to show them to have that characteristic kindly do necessary testing, or you can write your normal description of image and functionality.
