What is column chromatography?

Column chromatography is particularly suitable for separating large amounts of material. The column is a glass tube filled with a support material (the stationary phase). The stationary phase can be silica gel or cellulose. The different compounds in the mixture interact well or less well with this stationary phase, depending on their chemical nature, and are eluted in different fractions.

The most important field of column chromatography is HPLC.