Study of the surface properties of ceramic materials by chromatography: Final report

This report summarizes the progress made on the subject project from its beginning up to near the end of the last project year and describes their plans for the end of the year. During the grant period, the authors have (1) developed a theoretical model permitting the calculation of the adsorption energy distribution from the isotherm without making any assumptions regarding the experimental isotherm, by contrast with what current methods do; (2) coded, tested and validated the calculation procedures developed, which involved solving serious computational difficulties; (3) carried out a systematic investigation of the propagation of the experimental and model errors made in the chromatographic measurements to the energy distribution derived from these data; (4) prepared series of columns with silica particles of various origins, virgin or bonded with different groups; (5) determined the adsorption energy distributions of diethylether, methanol, ethanol, n-heptane, pyridine, and tetrahydrofuran on the surfaces of several of these adsorbents. Plans for the remaining third of the last project year include finishing the evaluation of experimental data already collected, calculation of the energy distributions, interpretation of the results, and completion of two additional papers.