The chromatographic material described herein uses core enhanced technology to produce columns that offer fast and high efficiency separations at pressures compatible with conventional HPLC equipment. The particles in these new stationary phases are not fully porous but rather have a solid silica core surrounded by a porous outer layer. The very tight particle size distribution results in columns with high permeability, and therefore ’bar for bar‘ this solid-core material gives higher performance separations than fully porous materials. This paper gives an overview of the fundamentals of the dispersion process in chromatography and applies it to the use of solid-core particles in the separation mechanism, illustrating the benefits of this type of particle in fast, high efficiency separations. Column selection based on selectivity, method transfer and the advantages that this technology has to offer in terms of column robustness are also reported.