Column in High Performance Liquid Chromatography

HPLC tube

The separation of the compound mixture takes place in this column or HPLC tube. The HPLC tube is made up of stainless steel. The stationary phase is packed in the column and it is usually a solid adsorbent. In some instances the solid adsorbent is packed with a thin layer of water. Thus the physical principle or the mode of separation in HPLC is partition.

As in other chromatographic techniques in HPLC the mobile phase with the test sample is gone through the stationary phase. And the compounds in the test sample are separated in here. Mobile phase serves only as a carrier of the test sample. According to the solubility differences (in other words polarity differences) the mixed compounds are separated.