Size Exclusion Chromatography

This separation technique is based on the molecular size. The stationary phase is a chemically inert material such as gels, porous inorganic solids, porous glass etc. Mobile phase is a water or aqueous solution which will serves only as a carrier for the analyte. The stationary phase of this chromatography is a porous material. This technique usually applies to larger molecules or macromolecules like proteins and industrial polymers. Also the stationary phase should not interact with the molecules. In here the medium sized compounds are trapped to the pores of stationary phase than the smallest and the largest ones. The size of the analyte (whether it is medium, small or large) depends on the pore size of the stationary phase. Smaller molecules experience more difficulties to pass through the stationary phase than large molecules do, because larger molecules which are bigger than the pores of stationary phase have very little entrance into pores.