Endcapping of high performance liquid chromatography packings derived from silica gel

The effect of endcapping a reversed phase chromatographic packing material derived from silica gel depends on the degree of derivatization of the phase. The effect can be dramatic for phases with low loading. Whether an octadecylated silica gel has been endcapped or not can be ascertained by chromatographing the pair naphthalene/1-nitronaphthalene with a water/methanol eluent producing at least k' ≈ 10 for naphthalene. The ratio of the two k' values is 1.4 or higher for an endcapped material, while it is only 1.1 -1.2 for a non-endcapped phase. A similar approach fails to give conclusions of similar utility for octylated silica gels.