A new plate for planar electrochromatography

A new bonded RP-18 sintered silica gel plate for use in reversed-phase planar electrochromatography has been prepared in our laboratory by fusing a mixture of silica gel and glass powder then reaction with octadecyltrichlorosilane. The plates have good chromatographic characteristics and other useful properties, for example mechanical stability, and can be regenerated by soaking the chromatogram in acetone. Use of the new plate in a development chamber designed for planar electrochromatography, with a 2-kV intermittent voltage supply and a mobile phase prepared from aqueous acetonitrile containing 25 mM sodium acetate buffer, pH 5.0, resulted in good separation of five dyes.