ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the solute/stationary phase interactions that take place on the surface of silica gel. The interactions of a solute with the silica gel surface when in contact with polar solvent are depicted. Thus, when examining the characteristics of a silica and the nature of the solute and solvent interactions with the surface, the same silica gel must be used or results cannot be correlated with one another. Silica can take different forms, ranging from the crystalline mineral varieties to the various types of amorphous silica. It can be seen that there will be chromatographic conditions where the surface of the silica gel will have nearly constant interactive properties over a significant range of solvent concentrations. However, changes in the dimethyloctyl content of the silica will be directly proportional to the total number of silanol groups that remain on the silica after thermal treatment.
