Home▸Chemistry & Materials▸Column Chromatography Separator

🧪 Column Chromatography Separator

Interactive 3D glass column where adjusting solvent polarity and stationary-phase packing shows how compounds separate by partition coefficient as bands travel at different speeds.

Chemistry & Materials3DModerate60 FPS

A mixed sample of plant pigments loaded onto a packed glass column separates into distinct coloured bands that travel down the column at different speeds, based on each compound's partition coefficient between the mobile solvent and the stationary packing.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Each pigment band's speed depends on how strongly it favours the stationary phase versus the moving solvent. Compounds that resemble the stationary packing lag behind; compounds that resemble the solvent race ahead and elute first.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust solvent polarity and flow rate, and switch between polar silica and nonpolar C18 packing. Watch the four bands separate and drip into collection tubes at the bottom in a new order.

💡 Did You Know?

Mikhail Tswett invented column chromatography around 1900 while separating plant pigments — and coined the very word "chromatography," Greek for "colour writing."

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D glass column where adjusting solvent polarity and stationary-phase packing shows how compounds separate by partition coefficient as bands travel at different speeds.

column-chromatographyseparation-sciencepartition-coefficientstationary-phaseanalytical-chemistrysolvent-polaritychemistry

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install