Partition chromatography

Partition chromatography theory and practice of was introduced through the work and publications of Archer Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge during the 1940s. The process of separating mixtures of chemical compounds by passing them through a column that contained a solid stationary phase that was eluted with a mobile phase (column chromatography) was well known at that time. Chromatographic separation was considered to occur by an adsorption process whereby compounds adhered to a solid media and were washed off the column with a solvent, mixture of solvents, or solvent gradient. In contrast, Martin and Synge developed and described a chromatographic separation process whereby compounds where partitioned between two liquid phases similar to the separatory funnel liquid-liquid separation dynamic. This was an important departure, both in theory and in practice, from adsorption chromatography.