Have you ever mixed something you wish you hadn’t? Like mixed in salt instead of sugar into your cookie dough? At the time it may have seemed an irrevocable mistake, one that led to the destruction of the dough in it’s entirely. You may have wished at that moment for some way to undo the damage. Thanks to chemistry, you could have. There exists a process called chromatography columns that pulls out specific chemical compounds from mixtures of compounds. So perhaps it may not be used to right wrongs done in household baking, but it is a way to avoid cross contamination.
Basic Process
What chemists do is take a glass tube with a tap at the top and a filter at the bottom. The size of the tube is dependent on the size of the job itself, but the process is the same. Regardless of size, there are two primary methods of extracting the chemicals. It is done using either the wet method or dry method. Both methods are effective and go through both a stationary and mobile phase in order to separate the elements. A chemist will put certain materials into the tube and the process is a complex filtration system that separates the different compounds. The compounds are collected in the filter at the bottom.
Using an Automatic System
Although it can be performed manually, this is typically done automatically because it provides more precision and can be done in mass quantities. Because it is so hands-off, the process is also completed a lot more quickly using an automatic chromatography column system. The automatic software eases the job of the chemist because the only thing that remains to be done is collecting the extracted compound once the machines have done their job.
Chemistry, a Logical Form of Magic
Chromatography columns are to be left to those who have studied the subject. Chemists work with expert intricacy. They are able to do what was once believed impossible. The combined use of science and technology can create, can rectify and can destroy depending on the needs at hand. Not even the sky is a limit.
Chromatography Columns, Yesterday’s Magic is Today’s Chemistry
by
Art Gibb, freelance writer on behalf
of Breakwood Enterprises
(
11-Dec-2012
)