Application of inverse gas chromatography to characterisation of a polypyrrole surface

Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) was applied to characterise a polypyrrole surface in a capillary column, prepared in situ by chemical vapour deposition. The free energies of adsorption, for a range of n-alkanes, n-alcohols and other polar samples were determined. Two solvation equations were used to correlate the sample retention volumes with sample parameters. The surface of the polypyrrole was found to exhibit a basic nature that determined the interactions with polar volatile compounds.