THREE-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF LIQUID PHASES CONFINED IN DISORDERED POROUS MEDIA: AN IN SITU SYNCHROTRON SAS ANALYSIS

We use Synchrotron Small-Angle X-ray Scattering to investigate temperature-induced morphological changes in binary hexane/nitrobenzene solutions confined in the pores of disordered mesoporous solids. The scattering data is analyzed with a plurigaussian model, which enables us to reconstruct the 3D morphology of the phases with a nanometer resolution. The reconstructions bring to light wetting transitions whereby the morphology of the nitrobenzene passes from a nanometer-thin layer that uniformly covers the solid surface to plugs that locally occlude the pore space. Our analysis enables us to quantitatively analyze the SAS data in terms of changing interface areas and wetting angles. The present contribution offers unprecedented insight into nanometer-scale wetting transitions. It also presents a novel SAS data analysis methodology that is applicable to a host of experimental situations involving disordered mesoporous materials.