Estimation of the degree of self-association of water using a novel retention model

Summary An attempt has been made to gain a semi-quantitative insight into the self-association of water molecules through hydrogen bonds. This was only possible with the use of a new solute retention model for the chromatographic systems by considering intermolecular interactions between the constituents of binary mobile phases. Four different sizes of the average associative aqueous multimer were assumed. By comparing measured and calculated retention values, the existence of associated aqueous multimers consisting of 100 aqueous monomer units is postulated as an average multimer structure.