I have used BET to determine surface area of my adsorbent (cellulosic material) but nitrogen does not adsorb on its surface. Only one point is available. Please suggest how can i measure its surface area.?
BET method requires dehydrating the cotton fibers at 120°C under vacuum, therefore removing the intramolecular water molecules and allowing the cellulose chains to collapse. Thus, the internal surface area of the cotton fibers is inaccessible to the N2 molecules. In effect, the dehydration of cotton fiber by vacuum drying promotes formation of interchain hydrogen linkages or cellulose-cellulose linkages which are too strong to be replaced by N2 molecules.
See reference: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/7630/1/7630.pdf