CORRELATION BETWEEN SPECIFIC SURFACE-AREA AND METHYL RED ADSORBED ON SILICA-GEL

The amount of methyl red, adsorbed on bare silica gel, has been determined for 32 samples having a specific surface area ranging from 10 m2/g to 500 m2/g, as determined by a BET method. A linear relationship between amount of dye adsorbed and specific area exists up to about 300 m2/g. Beyond this value the amount of adsorbed dye does not increase correspondingly, which is believed to be due to the relative increase of micropores in the silica gel structure. It is proposed that the easily performed determination of the adsorbed methyl red can serve to estimate that part of the silica gel surface which is available for chromatographic interactions. Copyright © 1990 by Marcel Dekker, Inc.