Bio Labware Review: Chromatography

New Bio Labware Review chapter is up! This week we discuss different methods in chromatography. While the name implies studying and recording color (which is in fact, how it all began), in today’s research, chromatography is referred to as any method of separating substances.

To achieve this, their physical and chemical properties (such as size, polarity, etc.) are exploited by placing a mixture between two phases and moving one (=mobile phase), relative to the other (=stationary phase). Depending on how each substance in a sample interacts with either of these two phases, they move along with the mobile phase with different rates and can thus be separated from each other.

Today we know different techniques of chromatography, which are categorized in many different ways, depending on the form and shape, the physical state of the phases, the separation mechanisms, and so on. Read more in our fresh github post, where we discuss the different techniques for substance separation and tune in again next week, when we will be discussing the methods suitable for detecting the substances, which have been separated.