Study of the temperature effect on the surface area of model organic molecules, the dispersive surface energy and the surface properties of solids by inverse gas chromatography

This paper demonstrated the non-validity of Schultz et al. method by proving that the surface areas of n-alkanes and polar molecules strongly depend of the temperature. Consequently, the results of surface properties obtained by this method are inaccurate. Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) at infinite dilution and the dynamic contact angle (DCA) technique were used on the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) fibers. DCA measurements led to the determination of the surface energy γ_s(T) of PTFE fibers as a function of the temperature T (Relation 6). The variations of the surface areas of n-alkanes and polar molecules versus the temperature were determined by studying the same PTFE fibers by IGC at infinite dilution. We proved that the product of the surface area a(T, C_n) (in Ų) of an alkane by the dispersive component of the surface energyγ_s^d(T)of the solid is constant at any temperature: [Formula: see text] , where b(C_n) is a constant only depending on the carbon atom number n of n-alkane C_n. An analytical relation of the surface area of n-alkanes as a function of the temperature was obtained (equation 18). Our results highlighted the failure of Dorris-Gray method that was largely used to determine γ_s^d of solids. This method considered the surface area a_-CH2- of methylene group equal to 6 Ų and constant for any used temperature. The obtained results proved the non-validity of Dorris-Gray method and gave the expression of a_-CH2- as a function of the temperature T (Equation 20) proved the non-validity of Dorris-Gray method. The calculations of the thermal expansion coefficients of the surface area a and radius R represented by the respective derivatives da/dT and dR/dT, showed their important variations as a function of the temperature. The general expression of the surface area a_X(T) of polar molecules was given as a function of the temperature (Expression 48). The large effect of the temperature on surface areas and radii of molecules was highlighted, except for toluene. The surface area of toluene was proved to remain constant whatever the temperature. Our results showed, in general, non-linear variations of the radius r_X(T) of polar molecules adsorbed on PTFE fibers. However, except for chloroform, dichloromethane and diethyl ether where their thermal expansion coefficient depends on the temperature, the linearity of r_X(T) was verified in the temperature interval [293 K, 353 K].