Digital Modeling of the Internal Structure of Macroporous Particle Architectures Using Experimentally Derived Parameters for Quantitative Structural Analysis

Nanostructured particles with nanoscale architectures have attracted considerable attention as potential candidates for applications in environmental catalysis, energy conversion, and advanced functional materials. In particular, macroporous particles are of interest due to their high specific surface areas and the possibility of enhanced mass transport within their structures, which may contribute to improved performance in various applications. However, it remains challenging to quantitatively characterize key structural features of such macroporous particles─including pore connectivity, tortuosity, and porosity─using conventional analytical techniques alone. In this study, we explore the construction of model macroporous particles in a virtual environment based on experimentally obtained particle properties and structural descriptors derived from real macroporous particles synthesized via spray drying of a colloidal solution containing primary nanoparticles and template particles. The parameters used for the model construction include particle diameter, pore size, porosity, template embedding depth, and pore overlap ratio. The digitally generated particles were able to reproduce key features of the experimentally observed pore morphology and porosity to a reasonable extent, suggesting that the proposed modeling approach can serve as a useful tool for geometry-based reconstruction of macroporous particle structures.