Granular-like behavior of molecular flow in constricted nanopores

The fluid flow through porous media is described by Darcy’s law, while the fluid/wall interactions can be neglected. In nanopores, where adsorption dominates, Darcy’s extension has been made, but approaches able to describe flows in mesopores are still lacking. We show here that molecular flows through nano-constrictions is well described by Berverloo’s law, predicting the mass flow rate of granular material through macro-apertures. This molecular and granular analogy, allows to derive a relationship providing a theoretical framework for the molecular flow in disordered mesoporous systems.