Typical measurement methods of adsorption isotherm are volumetric, gravimetric, pulse adsorption and dynamic method. The volumetric method is mainly used to measure the surface area and porosity.
The apparatus for the volumetric method consists of pressure sensors, valves, and a vacuum system as seen in the figure below. The inner volume is calibrated before the measurement. The adsorption amount is calculated by subtracting the number of remaining molecules at the adsorption equilibrium from the number of introduced molecules by using the ideal gas equation.
The volumetric method has the advantage of separating the apparatus only for sample pre-treatment to achieve the high throughput measurement of surface area and porosity. However, a disadvantage of the volumetric method is the not ideal gas behavior at high density and thermal transpiration for low pressure measurements.