Silicalite as a stationary phase for HPLC

A molecular sieve known as Silicalite was used as the column packing for HPLC. Silicalite contains channels (or cavities) approximately 6 Å in diameter but, unlike most other molecular sieves, Silicalite is hydrophobic. The retention times of methyl ketones and substituted phenols containing n‐alkyl groups increase with increasing chain length of the substituent. However, phenols with very bulky substituents appear to be excluded from the Silicalite channels and elute very quickly. Excellent separations were obtained for a number of compounds with only slight differences in chemical structure. These include phenol isomers with a primary‐ or secondary alkyl group, position isomers of substituted phenols, and aliphatic cis‐trans isomers.