In situ adsorption studies of 1-octanol on silica surfaces by ATR-FTIR

The adsorption of molecules from liquid solution onto silica surfaces is important for many areas of science and technology including LC, coatings, sol-gel sensors, and chemical modification of oxide surfaces. The in situ adsorption of 1-octanol on thin silica sol-gel films in contact with dilute cyclohexane solutions of 1-octanol was studied using Attenuated total reflection-FTIR. The silica sol-gel film was deposited onto a ZnSe internal reflection element by dip-coating with the resulting silica sol film thickness controlled to be < 1 pm. The entire adsorption isotherm for 1-octanol on silica was studied using cyclohexane solutions ranging in concentration from 4.5 × 10^-4 to 1.9 × 10^-1 M in 1-octanol. The adsorption isotherm for this system was presented and relevant adsorption constants were determined from the isotherm. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 230th ACS National Meeting (Washington, DC 8/28/2005-9/1/2005).