Silica gel is most commonly encountered in everyday life as beads packed in a semi-permeable plastic. In this form, it is used as a desiccant to control local humidity in order to avoid spoilage of some goods. Because of poisonous dopants (see below) and their very high absorption of moisture, silica gel packets usually bear warnings for the user not to eat the contents, but to throw them away instead. If consumed, the pure silica gel is unlikely to cause acute or chronic illness, but would be problematic nonetheless.
Silica gel was patented by chemistry professor Walter A. Patrick at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland in 1919. Prior to that, it was used in World War I for the absorption of vapors and gases in gas mask canisters. The substance was in existence as early as the 1640s as a scientific curiosity.[1]
In World War II, silica gel was indispensable in the war effort for keeping penicillin dry, protecting military equipment from moisture damage, as a fluid cracking catalyst for the production of high octane gasoline, and as a catalyst support for the manufacture of butadiene from ethanol, feedstock for the synthetic rubber program.
However, some packaged desiccants may include fungicide and/or pesticide poisons. It is not known whether these would be labeled specifically. Food-grade desiccant should not include any poisons which would cause long-term harm to humans if consumed in the quantities normally included with the items of food.
Silica gel's high surface area (around 800 m²/g) allows it to adsorb water readily, making it useful as a desiccant (drying agent). Once saturated with water, the gel can be regenerated by heating to 150 °C (300 °F) for 1.5 hours per litre of gel. Some types of silica gel will "pop" when exposed to enough water.
Silica gel may also be used to keep the relative humidity inside a high frequency radio or satellite transmission system waveguide as low as possible. Excessive moisture buildup within a waveguide can cause arcing inside the waveguide itself, damaging the power amplifier feeding it. Also, the beads of water that form and condense inside the waveguide change the characteristic impedance and frequency, impeding the signal. It is common for a small compressed air system (similar to a small home aquarium pump) to be employed to circulate the air inside the waveguide over a jar of silica gel.
In chemistry, silica gel is used in chromatography as a stationary phase. In column chromatography the stationary phase is most often composed of silica gel particles of 40-63 µm. In this application, due to silica gel's polarity, non-polar components tend to elute before more polar ones, hence the name normal phase chromatography. However, when hydrophobic groups (such as C18 groups) are attached to the silica gel then polar components elute first and the method is referred to as reverse phase chromatography. Silica gel is also applied to aluminum or plastic sheets for thin layer chromatography.
In many items from leather to pepperoni, moisture encourages the growth of mold and spoilage. Condensation may also damage other items like electronics and may speed the decomposition of chemicals, such as those in vitamin pills. By adding sachets of silica gel, these items can be preserved longer.
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