Engineering & Technologies, Vol 5, No 3 (2012)

NMR Imaging application for study of the polymethylmethacrylate colloidal crystals infiltration in the inverse opals preparation technology

Evgeny Morozov, Olga Shabanova, Oleg Falaleev

Abstract


NMR Imaging results of polymethylmethacrylate colloidal crystals infiltration are presented. For infiltration study the colloidal silica and fluids with different relation of surface tension and viscosity were utilized. Wetting front has a trend to be steady while propagated into bulk sample as revealed by means of NMR Imaging. As regards of powder sample, the wetting front instability was observed. Both the wetting front dynamic and structural properties of samples namely porous media permeability, fractal dimension of porous space and tortuosity were successfully measured. NMR Imaging techniques was demonstrated to be suitable for noninvasive study of infiltration processes occurred in the course of inverse opals preparation.