Surface Energy of Silica Xerogels and Fumed Silica by Inverse Gas Chromatography and Inverse Liquid Chromatography

Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) and inverse liquid chromatography (ILC) have been used to detect the interaction energy between silicas (fumed silicas and silica xerogels) surfaces and probes molecules. The silica surfaces were modified chemically by trimethylsiloxane functions. Either IGC or ILC have detected the adsorption energy change following the surface modification. In IGC technique, the results with several probes show clearly the physico-chemical properties of the silica surfaces. ILC was developed to use bigger probe molecules which are more similar in structure to polymers. In this work, squalene, a non volatile molecule with 30 carbon atoms and several double bonds, was used in ILC to simulate elastomer molecules.