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Question:

chromatography identifying an unknown compound?

what is a practical uses for the process of identifying an unknown compound using chromatography.

Answer:

there are lots of different types of chromatography, since chromatography itself refers to seperation techniques which involve passing a mixture dissolved in a mobile phase through a stationary phase - in terms of paper chromatography the mobile phase is the water with the mixture dissolved in it and the stationary phase is the paperPaper chromatography is used to separate pigments - for example the different pigments in plant leaves such as chlorophyll etcit can also be used to seperate the different components of inks and dyesThin layer chromatography is similar to paper chromatography, apart from the fact that the stationary phase is not paper but a sheet of glass, plastic, or foil coated in an absorbant material such as aluminium oxide, silica gel or celluloseIt is used to analyse dye compositions in fabrics, for example during forensic analysis or to examine the purity of drinking water (i.echecking it is free of pesticides)It is also used to check the purity of pharmaceutical drugs Other types of chromatography include affinity chromatography, which is used to purify proteins in biochemistry, allowing them to then be identified using Mass-spec analyses.

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