Abstract
The adsorption model in reversed phase liquid chromatography has been critically examined. It has been found that use of the Everett type surface activity coefficient for the solute in the stationary phase is not useful to study the retention characteristics of a nonpolar solute. We suggest a modified model. In this model it is assumed that the displaced modifier molecules from the surface monolayer do not transfer into the bulk mobile phase but stick to the nonpolar solute which has displaced them. In addition, we prefer to use an apparent stationary phase activity coefficient of the soluie instead of the Everett type activity coefficient. This modified adsorption model well explains the mobile and stationary phase effects on the solute retention upon variation of mobile phase composition.