What is chromatography? What is it used for?

Question

Think about how mixtures and solutions are separated.

Answer 1

Chromatography is a technique to separate a mixture into its components based on various properties such as size, polarity, solubility etc.

Example: Markers that are brown in color are make of ink that is a mixture of yellow red and black. Chromatography can be used to separate the brown ink into its components that are yellow, red and black because these three inks have differently soluble in a specific type of solvent (liquid).

Answer 2

Chromatography is a method used to separate or purify mixtures of various compounds. It is commonly used to isolate the desired product of a chemical reaction from unwanted by-products, or to analyze the various compounds that make up a mixture. Chromatography uses a mobile phase to push the analyte (substance to be separated) through a stationary phase, and takes advantages of various characteristics of the analyte to achieve this. For example, chromatography can utilize polarity, positive or negative charge, or molecular size in order to separate or characterize an analyte.

Answer 3

Chromatography is a method of separating mixtures using a moving solvent on filter paper. For example, filter paper chromatography is used to separate the colors in food dyes.