The increasing sophistication of pharmaceutical drugs
and drug delivery technologies has created the need for
new techniques to measure the physico-chemical
properties of a wide range of solid pharmaceutical
ingredients and formulations. Inverse gas
chromatography or IGC is a highly sensitive and
versatile gas phase technique in which a solid-state
material may be characterized in its native state. The
invention of IGC in 1967 [1] and the subsequent
development of IGC theory and methodology, beginning
in 1976 [2] and continuing today, are the consequence
of the increasing interest in materials science. While
IGC was initially used only in the study of synthetic
polymers, today, as evidenced in this book, IGC is used
to study synthetic and biological polymers, copolymers,
polymer blends, glass and carbon fibers, coal, and solid
foods.
Reasons for IGC's higher profile in the technical
literature include convenience and economics of
operation. The basic tools for IGC are inexpensive,
rugged, widely available, and as well suited for routine
laboratory applications, as they are for demanding
fundamental research. IGC data may be collected quite
rapidly over extended temperature ranges. A variety of
probes may be used in the mobile phase to elucidate
the characteristics of the stationary phase,
characteristics that otherwise are only obtained at far
greater expenditure of time and money.