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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Flash chromatography?

Definition 35.9 University Chemistry — Year 2 · Chapter 35 — Lab Techniques II: Synthesis and Analysis in Practice

Flash chromatography is preparative column chromatography on silica in which the eluent is pushed through the column by a slight gas pressure, so that a separation of grams of material takes minutes; the eluent is chosen from thin-layer chromatography on the same silica.

Flash chromatography (schematic). The crude product is loaded on top of the silica and eluted; the eluate is collected in fractions; a TLC plate of the fractions shows where each compound came out (here the fast, nonpolar compound in fractions 2–3, the slower one in 5–6), and the pure fractions are combined.
Flash chromatography (schematic). The crude product is loaded on top of the silica and eluted; the eluate is collected in fractions; a TLC plate of the fractions shows where each compound came out (here the fast, nonpolar compound in fractions 2–3, the slower one in 5–6), and the pure fractions are combined.
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