Surface studies by reversed-flow inverse gas chromatography: A review

In the present work, the application of reversed-flow inverse gas chromatography (RF-IGC) to adsorption studies related to heterogeneous catalytic processes on noble metal supported catalysts is reviewed. RF-IGC methodologies are technically simple and they are combined with suitable mathematical treatments which give the possibility for studying the kinetics of catalyzed surface reactions, as well as the topography and the nature of the active sites of solid catalysts. Adsorption parameters, such as rate constants, adsorption energies, adsorption entropies, local isotherms, surface diffusion coefficients, lateral interaction energies and energy distribution functions, are simultaneously determined by RF-IGC. The potential of the novel methodologies has been evaluated by utilising as model systems CO adsorption/oxidation over well-studied Pt–Rh/SiO2 and nanosized-Au/γ-Al2O3 catalysts. The main findings are presented and future goals are also discussed.