Fractal analysis methods to characterize porous solids using nitrogen adsorption data

The use of the fractal concept to characterize the morphological nature of complex materials, such as porous solids, is considered. The most popular approaches, which are based on analysis of the shape of the adsorption isotherms of a substance vapor (in this case nitrogen at 77 K), are outlined and applied to diaracterizing a series of commercial carbon blacks. The most recent developments in this domain are given, the results obtained show that some methods, although derived using different arguments, are equivalent in some conditions, and the concept of a standard isotherm can he used in the fractal approach.