Comparative study on the gas-phase adsorption of hexane over zeolites by calorimetry and inverse gas chromatography

The scope of this work is to carry out a systematic comparison of inverse gas chromatography (IGC) and microcalorimetry as tools for the study of the gas-phase adsorption of organic vapours (using hexane as model compound) on zeolitic materials (using different Mn, Co and Fe-exchanged NaX and CaA zeolites). Adsorption isotherms were recorded using both techniques in the temperature range of 150-250 °C, being observed that the shape of the isotherms obtained with the dynamic (IGC) and static (microcalorimetry) techniques was surprisingly similar in the pressure range at which both techniques are applicable (low surface coverages). Concerning to the measurement of the strength of the adsorption, calorimetric data provide two parameters related to the adsorption enthalpy: the initial differential heat and the isosteric adsorption enthalpy. A great coincidence was found between the last one and the adsorption enthalpy determined by IGC (4-20% of difference, depending on the studied material). The behaviour of the initial differential heat depends strongly on the studied material, being in some cases closely related to the other two parameters and temperature-independent (in the case on Mn-exchanged zeolites), whereas for the Co-CaA and Fe-CaA zeolites, it is temperature-dependent, being not correlated with the other parameters in this case. The main conclusion of this work is that IGC is an attractive alternative to the static microcalorimetric data for obtaining information on the adsorption of organic compounds on microporous materials.