introduction to column chromatography.

Introduction to column-chromatography

A powerful technique for the separation of mixed substances is column chromatography (Lang 2017). This is an example of adsorptivechromatography. It uses both a stationary phase (such as silica gel) and a mobile phase (such as solvent) to separate the mixture of compounds. Once the sample is on the top of the column the mobile phase is used to separate the components in the mixture. The affinity of the compound for the stationary phases determines how they react with them as the compounds travel down the column. You can use column chromatography to separate complex mixtures. This is particularly useful when separating compounds with similar properties (Guy 2019,). This method can also be used to perform both analytical and preparative separations. Chemical analysis is fundamentally based on column chromatography. It is widely used across a range of industries including food, pharmaceutical and environmental. It is an extremely powerful technique with many applications. This makes it valuable in research as well as industry.