High-Performance Liquid Chromatography is a chromatographic technique used to separate compounds or mixtures in the area of analytical chemistry, biochemistry and in the production sector. HPLC thus plays a vital role in the pharmaceutical area because its being used to test the products and components used to create them. Simply said, it is a way of separating, identifying and measuring each component in a mixture or compound. It includes the use of pumps to maneuver pressurized liquid solvent comprising a sample of this mixture through a column containing solid absorbent substance. An absorbent is a material that brings another particle or substance to its surface.

Chromatography Column

The principle of HPLC Isn’t a Complex rocket science to understand. The sample mixture to be separated and examined is introduced, in tiny volumes, in the mobile phase percolating throughout the pillar. The mobile phase is that the pressurized liquid that is typically a combination of solvents like water, methanol and acetonitrile. Mechanical pumps are utilized to pump the mobile phase into the system and injector introduces the sample to be examined into the mobile phase which enters the column at a constant mass flow rate. However, elements of the mixture move through the column at different velocities that are functions of their interaction with the absorbent material. The column separates the elements of the compound or mixtures on the basis of the polarity. If stationary phase absorbent is nonpolar, it pulls the non-polar components as well as the polar components elute first then a non-polar component. When the absorbent is polar, the non-polar component elutes first.

The speed of each component what is chromatography on its chemical nature, nature of this column and composition of the mobile phase. The time and a particular analyte emerges from the column is called retention period and is an identifying characteristic of a specific analyte when measured under certain conditions. An analyte is a sample whose components are being analysed. Various Kinds of columns are Available full of absorbents varying in sizes of particles and the nature of the surfaces. The use of small size particles requires high pressure during operation and it boosts the chromatographic resolution the level of separation of successive analytes emerging from the column. Common mobile phases used are any miscible mixture between water and inorganic compounds such as acetonitrile and methanol. Some HPLC uses water-free mobile stages. The aqueous part of a mobile phase may contain salts or acids to assist in separation of elements.