Modified aluminas as chromatographic supports for high-performance liquid chromatography

This review begins by describing the relevant properties of alumina as a support material for chemically bonded stationary phases in HPLC. The most common chemical modification processes are summarized as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each method. In order to more fully understand the chemically modified alumina surface, some spectroscopic approaches are outlined for characterization of the bonded phases. Finally, a number of successful applications are described for a variety of chemically modified aluminas in order to illustrate their potential usefulness and to compare their chromatographic behavior to the more conventional silica-based materials.