The influence of the amount of stationary phase and nature of solid support on retention indices

It is shown that the retention indices of polar solutes are affected by the amount of stationary phase in the column. The retention indices increase with decreasing stationary phase loadings. The reasons for this behavior are most likely due to the existence of mixed retention mechanisms. At low amounts of stationary phases, adsorption on the support or column walls can take place. Studies were made using four supports, two of which were Chromosorb W and the other two Chromosorb P. The effects of changing the liquid phase loadings are more pronounced when using Chromosorb P.