What is HPLC

High performance liquid chromatography is accordingly an advanced form of column chromatography. Instead of a solvent being allowed to drip through a column under gravity, it is forced through under high pressures of 50-350 bar. That makes it much faster.

What does HPLC do?

It also allows you to use a very much smaller particle size for the column packing material which gives a much greater surface area for interactions between the stationary phase and the molecules flowing past it. This allows a much better separation of the components of the mixture.

Normal-phase chromatography

Also known as normal-phase HPLC (NP-HPLC), or adsorption chromatography, this method separates analytes based on their affinity for a polar stationary surface such as silica, hence it is based on analyte ability to engage in polar interactions (such as hydrogen-bonding or dipole-dipole type of interactions) with the sorbent surface. NP-HPLC uses a non-polar, non-aqueous mobile phase, and works effectively for separating analytes readily soluble in non-polar solvents. The analyte associates with and is retained by the polar stationary phase. Adsorption strengths increase with increased analyte polarity. The interaction strength depends not only on the functional groups present in the structure of the analyte molecule, but also on steric factors. The effect of steric hindrance on interaction strength allows this method to resolve (separate) structural isomers.

Reversed-phase chromatography (RPC)

A chromatogram of complex mixture (perfume water) obtained by reversed phase HPLC.

Reversed phase HPLC (RP-HPLC) has a non-polar stationary phase and an aqueous, moderately polar mobile phase. One common stationary phase is a silica which has been surface-modified with RMe₂SiCl, where R is a straight chain alkyl group such as C₁₈H₃₇ or C₈H₁₇. With such stationary phases, retention time is longer for molecules which are less polar, while polar molecules elute more readily (early in the analysis). An investigator can increase retention times by adding more water to the mobile phase; thereby making the affinity of the hydrophobic analyte for the hydrophobic stationary phase stronger relative to the now more hydrophilic mobile phase. Similarly, an investigator can decrease retention time by adding more organic solvent to the eluent. RP-HPLC is so commonly used that it is often incorrectly referred to as "HPLC" without further specification. The pharmaceutical industry regularly employs RP-HPLC to qualify drugs before their release.