Development of standard operation procedures for the manufacture of n-octadecyl bonded silicas as packing material in certified reference columns for reversed-phase liquid chromatography

The development of standard operation procedures for the manufacture of a n-octadecyl bonded spherical silica packing from partially condensed tetraethoxysilane as silica source is described. The synthesis comprises five intermediate products and six synthesis steps which were examined according to their reproducibility and robustness. The results led to the optimisation of the manufacturing process for a n-octadecyl bonded silica. Correlations were drawn between the dynamic viscosity of the poly(ethoxy)siloxane (PES), the synthesis parameters, the resulting pore structural properties and particle size distribution of the silicas. Validated procedures were developed to manufacture spherical porous ultra-pure silicas with a specific surface area of 350 m2 g−1±5% R.S.D., a specific pore volume of 1.0 ml g−1±3.7% R.S.D., an average pore diameter of 12.0 nm±0.5% R.S.D. and an average particle diameter of 5 μm. Results are presented on trial batches and the final master batch which were both used as packing materials in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC) columns. The latter columns were certified and accepted as an HPLC column as reference material (BCR-722) by the European Commission, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), Geel, Belgium.