Structural and surface properties of seven chromatographic silica gels were characterized by means of nitrogen adsorption and high-resolution thermogravimetry. The retention of alkyl benzenes was measured using the corresponding commercial octyl-bonded phases. The partition-displacement model was used to evaluate the equilibrium sorption constant and the surface excess of acetonitrile for each octyl phase. Most of the stationary phases studied showed similar sorption properties and, consequently, comparable values of the acetonitrile surface excess. Only for one of the phases studied the surface excess was much higher, and that was attributed to the difference in the silanol coverage of the stationary phase.