Does methanol dissolve silica?

This is an age-old question for people using MeOH in their flash chromatography.

Turns out, methanol doesn’t actually dissolve silica gel. The “white stuff” you sometimes see is tiny silica particles (fines) breaking off, especially from granular silica when using DCM/MeOH gradients. Spherical silica seems better at holding its own. Have a look at an interesting analysis conducted by Biotage.