Abstract: Inverse gas chromatographic (IGC) technology was used to determine the solubility parameters of high density polyethylene (HDPE) at the absolute temperatures from 303.15 to 343.15 K. Six solvents were applied as test probes including hexane (n-C6), heptane (n-C7), octane (n-C8), nonane (n-C9), chloroform (CHCl3) and ethyl acetate (EtAc). Some thermodynamic parameters were obtained by IGC data analysis such as the specific retention volumes of the solvents (V0g), the molar enthalpy of sorption (ΔHS1), the partial molar enthalpy of mixing at infinite dilution (ΔH∞l), the molar enthalpy of vaporization (ΔHv), the activity coefficients at infinite dilution (Ω∞1), and Flow-Huggins interaction parameters (χ∞1,2) between HDPE and probe solvents. The results showed that the above six probes are poor solvents for HDPE. The solubility parameter of HDPE at room temperature (298.15 K) was also derived as 19.00 (J/cm3)0.5.

Key words: high density polyethylene (HDPE), solubility parameter, inverse gas chromatography (IGC)