column chromotography (1 Viewer)

[Maddy1012]

i dont understand how column chrmotography works.. i understand the procedure but i dont understand how the components get seperated if they all just come out with the solvent into a beaker or whatever and it just all looks the same once it comes out of the column. Confused :S

 

[brenton1987]

The components seperate due to their different retention times which is determined by interactions between the component and the solid phase.

They seperate because they are all suposed to empty into seperate beakers.

 

[BlackJack]

Practically speaking, if you can't see the components you'll need to prepare a series of small flasks to swap over as you conduct the experiment. The faster component(s) will come out first, which will be contained within the first # of flasks, and the slower one will be contained in a a few of the later flasks.