Surface properties of low specific surface powders using inverse gas chromatography

Inverse Gas Chromatography (IGC) is used to study the influence of relative humidity and chemical treatment with sulfochromic acid on the surface properties of glass beads. The humidity of the carrier gas to the chromatograph is controlled by means of a specially designed humidity generator to allow investigation of the surface of powders attributed to the progressive coverage by water molecules. The solid under test is glass beads with a very a low specific surface and the properties studied are the specific surface, thermodynamic parameters and the proportions of silanol and siloxane groups on the surface.