History of HPLC

Liquid chromatography was initially discovered as an analytical technique in the early twentieth century and was first used as a method of separating colored compounds. This is where the name chromatography chroma means color, graphy means writing, was derived. A Russian botanist named Mikhail S. Tswett used a rudimentary form of chromatographic separation to purify mixtures of plant pigments into the pure constituents. He separated the pigments based on their interaction with a stationary phase, which is essential to any chromatographic separation. The stationary phase he used was powdered chalk and aluminia, the mobile phase in his separation was the solvent. After the solid stationary phase was packed into a glass column (essentially a long, hollow, glass tube) he poured the mixture of plant pigments and solvent in the top of the column. He then poured additional solvent into the column until the samples were eluted at the bottom of the column. The result of this process most crucial to his investigation was that the plant pigments separated into bands of pure components as they passed through the stationary phase. Modern high performance liquid chromatography or HPLC has its roots in this separation, the first form of liquid chromatography. The chromatographic process has been significantly improved over the last hundred years, yielding greater separation efficiency, versatility and speed.