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define chromatography? what are its uses?
Chromatography (chroma means color and graph to write) is the collective term for a set of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures.
         The mixture is dissolved in a fluid called the mobile phase, which carries it through a structure holding another material called the stationary phase. The various constituents of the mixture travel at different speeds, causing them to separate. The separation is based on differential partitioning between the mobile and stationary phases.


Chromatography is the use of a mobile phase and stationary phase to separate molecules of a sample being analyzed. The sample is injected into the mobile phase and then run through the tubes of the HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-this is the machine that does all this) and the mobile then runs
through a column. On this column sits a stationary phase. The stationary phase separates the certain molecules in the mobile phase. Each molecule comes off the column at a different rate because of their sizes and properties. A detector is at the end of the column and detects the time that it takes for these molecules to come off the column.


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