In chromatography, endcapping refers to the replacement of accessible silanol groups in a bonded stationary phase by trimethylsilyl groups.
Endcapping technology prevents the tailing of a polar compound's peak and shows very high durability even with an alkaline mobile phase because of the strong film covering the stationary phase surface.
The amount of available silanol groups is reduced. (...)
With an endcapping the influence of non derivatized silanol groups can be minimized. The endcapping reagent is generally a smaller silane than used for derivatisation. This treatment reduces the unwanted interaction of polar or charged analytes (acids, bases ect.) because the amount of available silanol groups is reduced.
Because of steric hindrance and other factors, it is not possible to react all of the silanols with C8 or C18 alkyl groups. Because of this, after the initial bonding, additional bondings are sometimes performed, attaching smaller alkyl groups, quite often propyl or isopropyl groups, to the residual silanols. There is no endcapping process that is complete. There are always unreacted silanols.
The resulting stationary phase, having fewer residual silanols, will display fewer secondary interactions characteristic of silanols than a non-endcapped stationary phase.