Abstract: Rhodamine B, Sudan I, and Sudan IV were used as model compounds to investigate the different separation characteristics of filter paper which had been modified by silica nanoparticles and silylation reagents. The effects of different nanoparticles size, carbon chains length of silylation reagents and treated methods on the separation characteristics of modified filter paper has been studied. The results showed that, the paper modified by smaller silica nanoparticles size, longer carbon chains length, owned better separation performance. The modified filter paper has the similar retention behavior with reversed-phase column chromatography.

Key words: Nanoparticle, Paper chromatography, Silylation modification, Pigment