the.com/chromatography
Separating a mixture by racing its molecules and betting on friction.
means A laboratory technique that separates the components of a mixture based on how differently they travel through a medium, letting chemists identify or purify individual substances.
from From Greek khrōma ("color") plus -graphy ("writing/recording") — literally "color-writing." The name comes from the technique's first dramatic use: separating plant pigments into bands of color on paper or in a column. Even now that most chromatography involves colorless compounds tracked by other means, the word still carries that original rainbow in its roots.
- name origin
- Greek for color writing, first runs used pigments
- the trick
- some molecules cling to the track, others sprint ahead
- everyday version
- a coffee spill splitting into colored rings is this
- forensic use
- detects drugs and poisons from microscopic sample traces