Saturday, May 2, 2020

Why is water not suitable solvent in paper chromatography

Paper chromatography is a type of chromatography process that used to separate the compounds. It is a technique of planar chromatography in which a special cellulose paper acts as a stationary phase in that the molecules are separated. The principle involved in paper chromatography is a partition in which the components are distributed or partitioned into liquid phases. The same basic principle (partition) involved in column chromatography, liquid chromatography, and thin-layer chromatography (TLC).
The stationary phase of paper chromatography is cellulose paper which polar and water are also quite polar, therefore there is no distinction by which to separate the molecules. The water is not used in the paper chromatography, due to the water the paper swells up and ultimately dissolves.




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