What is elution?

Elution is a process in chromatography where the compounds of interest are washed out, or eluted, from a solid phase based on their affinity for the mobile phase.

In liquid chromatography, elution involves passing a mobile phase (solvent mixture) over a stationary phase (solid support with attached molecules) to separate and detect the components of a mixture.

The elution process can be adjusted by changing the composition of the mobile phase and the flow rate, allowing for the separation of different compounds based on their chemical properties such as polarity, size, and charge.

Elution is commonly used in analytical chemistry to separate and analyze complex mixtures of compounds, as well as in various biochemistry and molecular biology techniques such as protein purification and DNA sequencing.