Silica Gel Desiccant

Silica Gel is having a large surface area. This allows to absorb water easily. Its surface area is around 800 m2 /g. Therefore it is working as a drier. For industrial purposes, to absorb excess moisture from the surrounding of any machines or products silica gel is using as a drying agent.

Silica gel is usually mentioned as "absorbing" wetness, which can be applied once the gel's microscopic structure is unnoticed, as in silica gel packs or different products. But with chemicals, silica gel removes wetness by adsorbing onto the surface of its varied pores instead of by absorption into the majority of the gel.

In chemistry, silica gel is used in chromatographic techniques as a stationary medium. The stationary phase in column chromatography is mostly composed of silica gel. Different types of silica gel differing in particle sizes are used for achieving the desired separation of certain molecular sizes in chemical mixtures. Based on the polarity difference the silica gel is capable of separating the chemical mixtures.

The hydroxyl groups on the surface of silica desiccant can be functionalized to afford specialty silica gels that exhibit unique stationary phase parameters. Silica gels are so-called functionalized. As insoluble reagents and scavengers, silica gels are also used in organic synthesis and purification.

Silica gel is a desiccant. Silica gel is covalently bonded with chelating groups also. These materials have the ability to remove metal ions selectively from aqueous media. Chelating groups can be covalently bound to polyamines that have been grafted onto a silica gel surface producing material of greater mechanical integrity.

Researchers are inclined to use silica gel by considering the above properties of silica gel. In developed countries, a vast expansion of technology has bought sophisticated instruments for purifications of chemical mixtures involving silica gel and desiccants. But developing and poor countries not in a position to afford such expensive instrumentation are adapted to the techniques involving usage of silica gel manually.