Effect of surface heterogeneity on adsorption on solid surfaces: Application of inverse gas chromatography in the studies of energetic heterogeneity of adsorbents

The paper presents a literature review of the chromatographic methods used for investigations of the heterogeneity of solid surfaces. Special attention is paid to inverse gas chromatography (IGC). Quantitative characteristics of heterogeneity of real solid surfaces including extreme models on adsorption centre topography of the “patch-wise” and “random” types are described. Analytical and numerical methods used for calculating the adsorption energy distribution function as a quantitative measure of surface heterogeneity are presented. Special attention is paid to the condensation approximation as well as to other approximations based on this assumption. IGC is presented as a quick, precise and effective method to characterise physicochemical properties of different kinds of adsorbents. Advantages of IGC over traditional methods of gas and vapour adsorption are shown.