Impact of the post-treatment conditions of parent silica on the silanization of n-octadecyl bonded silica packings in reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Native mesoporous silica beads were subjected to a sequence of post-treatment procedure including hydrochloric acid treatment, calcination and subsequent rehydroxylation. The post-treated silica beads were converted into RP-18 silica by silanization with monochloro- and dimethoxy-n-octadecylsilanes, respectively. The influence of post-treatments and silanization conditions on the physico–chemical characteristics and on the chromatographic behaviour of the RP-silicas was studied. Also the changes of the pore structural parameters and the silanol group densities during the post-treatment and silanization were assessed.