Help with HPLC

[moonpie91]

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i need help with understanding how High Performance Liquid Chromatography(HPLC) works.

ive got a note saying:

the mixture is forced through a column by liquid at high pressure, which decreases the time the separated components remain on the stationary phase and thus the time they ahve to spread out within the column, leading to broader peaks. Less time on the colum then translates to narrower peaks in the resulting chromatogram and thence to better selectivity and sensitivity.

i dont understand the bit where it says 'less time on the column then translates to narrower peaks' when it has just said the reduced time to spread out leads to broader peaks.

can someone who understands that explain so that i can understand or share their easy-to-understand version of how HPLC works?

thanks

[brenton1987]

Originally Posted by moonpie91

the mixture is forced through a column by liquid at high pressure, which decreases the time the separated components remain on the stationary phase and thus the time they ahve to spread out within the column, leading to broader peaks. Less time on the colum then translates to narrower peaks in the resulting chromatogram and thence to better selectivity and sensitivity.

It is written poorly.

The time spent on the column is proportional (not really) to the broadness of the peaks. A long time on the column leads to broad peaks, a short time leads to narrow peaks.