Determination of the pore size distribution of high-performance liquid chromatography stationary phases via inverse size exclusion chromatography

Stationary phases in liquid chromatography exhibit quite different pore structures. Whereas most of the fully porous packing materials possess a narrow pore size distribution, core–shell particles are usually of rather wide pore size distribution. Recently a novel theory of size exclusion chromatography was introduced to model the effect of pore size distribution. The molecular theory of chromatography allows taking into account the kinetics of the pore ingress and egress processes, the heterogeneity of the pore sizes and polymer polydispersity as well. The novel model was applied to inverse size exclusion chromatography data. In this study, we have determined the actual pore size distribution of a number of HPLC stationary phases. Our results agree well with the results obtained with the model introduced by Knox and Scott.