CONFIRMATION AND APPLICATION OF TRANSMISSION NEAR-INFRARED ABSORPTION TECHNIQUE FOR ABSOLUTE QUANTITATION OF FUNCTIONAL-GROUPS ON SILICA-GEL

A transmission near infrared (NIR) technique has been demonstrated to be useful for the qualitative and quantitative measurements of silica surface functionalities. Confirmation of this method's quantitative capabilities has been performed using a newly developed deuterium-exchange method and the more established methods of tritium radiosotopic exchange and carbon analysis. This NIR technique has been utilized for the evaluation of surface modification reactions for reducing the silanol content of modified silicas. This effort led to the development of "direct butylation" as a promising method for deactivation of porous silica surfaces. Complementary surface characterization information was obtained using solid state NMR, BET adsorption, mercury intrusion porosimetry and gas chromatography. © 1990.