DEFINE CHOMATOGRAPHY

Chromatography is a technique for separating mixtures into their components in order to analyze, identify, purify, and/or quantify the mixture or components.

Chromatography is used by scientists to:

• Analyze – examine a mixture, its components, and their relations to one another

• Identify – determine the identity of a mixture or components based on known components

• Purify – separate components in order to isolate one of interest for further study

• Quantify – determine the amount of the a mixture and/or the components present in the sample

Detailed Definition:

Chromatography is a laboratory technique that separates components within a mixture by using the differential affinities of the components for a mobile medium and for a stationary adsorbing medium through which they pass.

Terminology:

• Differential – showing a difference, distinctive

• Affinity – natural attraction or force between things

Definition of Chromatography

Simplified Definition:

Chromatography separates the components of a mixture by their distinctive attraction to the mobile phase and the stationary phase.

Explanation:

• Compound is placed on stationary phase

• Mobile phase passes through the stationary phase

• Mobile phase solubilizes the components

• Mobile phase carries the individual components a certain distance through the stationary phase, depending on their attraction to both of the phases