Investigations into the chromatographic behaviour of silica gels produced from ester silicates

Summary Silica gels produced from ester silicates (ES-gels) are excellent chromatographic supports. In comparison with other silica gels the RP-materials obtained from them show little peak tailing even with polar, and, in particular, with basic compounds. Gels produced by various manufacturing processes have been classified by adsorption with methyl pyridinium chloride. ES-gels yield very low methyl pyridinium chloride values and small asymmetry parameters. The results indicate that there are strongly acidic, structurally-related surface centres which cause peak tailing on most commercial gels. It was shown that surface silanols on silica gels do not, in themselves, lead to peak tailing.