Silica gel, wide pore is mainly used for the dehydrated purification of the industrial gases, the clearance of the organic acids and high polymers in the insulative oil, the purification and separation of the medicines. It is also used in column chromatography without applied pressure (gravity pulled).
Before use as a drying agent, silica gel is heated in an oven, then cooled in a desiccator. Conditions in the literature range from heating at 110o for 15hours to 250o for 2-3hours. Silica gel has been purified by washing with hot acid (in one case successively with aqua regia, conc HNO3, then conc HCl; in another case it was digested overnight with hot conc H2SO4), followed by exhaustive washing with distilled water (one week in a Soxhlet apparatus has also been used), and prolonged oven drying. Alternatively, silica gel has been extracted with acetone until all soluble material was removed, then dried in a current of air, washed with distilled water and oven dried. Silica gel has also been washed successively with water, M HCl, water, and acetone, then activated at 110o for 15hours. Silicon monoxide [10097 -28 -6] M 44.1, m > 1700o, d 4 2.18. Purify the monoxide by sublimation in a porcelain tube in a furnace at 1250o (4hours) in a high vacuum (10-4mm) in a stream of N2. It is obtained as brownish black scales. [Schenk in Handbook of Preparative Inorganic Chemistry (Ed. Brauer) Academic Press Vol I p 696 1963.]
