Theory of Chromatography

Andrzej Przyjazny
Kettering University, Flint, MI

Graduate School
Gdańsk University of Technology
Fall 2006
 Lecture Outline
• A brief history
• Classification of chromatographic methods
• Theory of chromatography
• Efficiency of separation
• Gas chromatography
• Evaluation and optimization of separations
 Lecture Outline (cont.)
• Two-dimensional chromatography
• High-speed gas chromatography
• Developing separation in HPLC
• Computer-assisted method development
• Ultra-high pressure HPLC
• Monolithic columns
• Molecularly imprinted polymer columns
 IUPAC Definition:
Chromatography is a physical method of
separation in which the components to be
separated are distributed between two
phases, one of which is stationary while the
other moves in a definite direction.
 A Brief History…
Chronology
• column chromatography
• paper chromatography
• gas-liquid chromatography
• thin layer chromatography (TLC)
• high-pressure liquid chromatography
(HPLC)
 First Attempts:
Friedlieb Runge (1794-1867)

Used unglazed paper

and pieces of cloths
for spot testing dye
mixtures and plant
extracts
 First Attempts:
Friedrich Goppelsröder (1837-1919)

Introduced paper strip

analysis of dyes, milk,
beer, colloids, plant
and animal pigments
Thin Layer: 1889
Mikhail Tsvett (1872-1919)
“Like light rays in the spectrum, the
different components of a pigment
mixture, obeying a law, are
resolved on the calcium carbonate
column and then can be
qualitatively and quantitatively
determined. I call such a
preparation a chromatogram and the
corresponding method the
chromatographic method.”
 Early Developments

Richard Kuhn Edgar Lederer

“Up to now, we have learned with much
effort to distill, crystallize, and recrystallize,
and now they come along and just pour the
stuff through a little tube!”

Heinrich Wieland, Nobel laureate

Ion-Exchange: 1938
Adsorption Column Separations
(1947)
Pellicular versus Surface-Sulfonated
Resin
 Martin and Synge
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1952

Archer John Porter Martin Richard Laurence Millington Synge

“for their invention of partition chromatography”

Capillary Gas Chromatography:
Marcel JE Golay –1958
Rapid Separation of the Components of a
Hydrocarbon Mixture on a Nylon
Capillary Column
Separation of the Isomeric Heptanes on a
Glass Capillary Column
Gel Permeation: 1958
Gel Permeation: 1958
Separation of Proteins by Molecular
Exclusion Chromatography
HPLC: 1963
Affinity Chromatography: 1967