A Review on Adsorbents In Chromatography

Abstract

The Adsorption chromatography only differs from adsorption in how the process operates, not the principle of separation. For adsorption chromatography, the adsorbent is used as the stationary phase. The solute binds to the adsorbent via van der Waal forces and steric interactions. Since the adsorption sites are typical only on the outer surface of the stationary phase, fairly small particles are used as the stationary phase. The technique of chromatography used presently is limited to a few adsorbents and usually to non-aqueous systems, due to the difficulty of elution of the adsorbate. However, aqueous systems could be used if adsorbents were available which permitted adsorption and desorption to be controlled by pH adjustment. Adsorption is present in many natural physical, biological, and chemical systems and is widely used in industrial applications such as activated charcoal, capturing and using waste heat to provide cold water for air conditioning and other process requirements, synthetic resins, increase storage capacity of carbide-derived carbons for tunable nanoporous carbon and water purification.