Chromatography

About Chromatography

Chromatography is a laboratory technique for separating mixtures into their individual components. The word comes from the Greek words "chroma" (color) and "graphein" (to write), as it was originally used to separate colored plant pigments.

Types of chromatography include paper chromatography (uses paper as the stationary phase), thin layer chromatography or TLC (uses a thin layer of adsorbent on a plate), gas chromatography (uses gas as the mobile phase), and High Performance Liquid Chromatography or HPLC (uses high pressure liquid systems). Applications include drug testing and pharmaceutical analysis, food and beverage quality control, environmental monitoring, forensic analysis, and biochemical research. The Rf value is a characteristic property that helps identify compounds, with factors affecting Rf values including temperature, solvent composition, paper type, and humidity.