Because the fully porous silica has pores throughout its structure, it can interact with the sample over a very wide surface area. As the amount of octadecyl phase that can be bonded increases, hydrophobic samples can be retained longer, leading to improved separation.

With core-shell silica’s nonporous core, sample dispersion is reduced; compared to fully porous columns, high theoretical plate numbers can be achieved even with larger particles. These larger particles result in lower backpressure, enabling use on conventional HPLC instruments.