Chromatographic resolution

Chromatographic resolution (Chemistry) refers to the separation of material in column chromatography. As eluent travels through a column it causes different constituents of the material being separated to travel faster depending on the constituents solubility in the eluent. Chromatographic Resolution is a measure of how much separation is made between each constituent before it exits the column. The resolution between two peaks is typically determined by the 2 times the separation between the peaks divided by the sum of the two peak heights.

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Peak height has nothing to do with resolution. The word 'height" should be changed to "width at the base".

Also, it should be noted that measuring the width of chromatographic peaks may be difficult due to peak asymmetry and complicated-to-impossible for partially resolved pairs of peaks. Accordingly, correction factors are often employed depending on the height at which the width is measured. There are a number of theoretical studies addressing this issue.

See also

• Chromatography
• Van Deemter's equation