Components of HPLC
To know more about HPLC it is necessary to know about components of HPLC (High pressure liquid chromatography). So let us discuss some of the major components of high pressure liquid chromatography.
There are 5 major components of HPLC which are as follows:
- Pump
- Injector
- Column
- Detector
- Computer
Pump
Pump is the component of HPLC which is necessary to provide the pressure that propels the sample to be detected to the column. There are different types of pumps based on the amount of pressure that can be produced. After the sample is injected with the injector the pressure is applied . Which allows the given sample to pass through the column easily. The main role of pump is to force a liquid which is known as mobile phase (sample mixes with the mobile phase) at a specific flow rate. During entire process the pump deliver a constant mobile phase composition which is known as Isocratic or increasing mobile phase composition which is known as gradient.
Injector
So in order to introduce or inject a sample into an HPLC, the sample is first dissolved into the mobile phase which is to be used and the prepared liquid solution which contains sample as well as the mobile phase is introduced into the HPLC with the help of an injector. The liquid sample is introduce into the flow stream of the mobile phase. There are two types of injector, either we can inject manually or there is an autosampler which collects samples automatically from the samples already prepared.
Column
There are different types of the column based on the samples to be separated. Column are considered as the heart of the chromatograph. There is stationary phase in the column which is used for the separation of the sample. The packing material in the column have smaller size. Now the polar parts of the samples can be separated very quickly if the mobile phase is polar and the non polar part of the sample takes time to separate. So based on the adsorption the sample are separated by the column. And vice-versa if the mobile phase is non-polar.DetectorThere are different types of detectors which identifies or separate the given sample with different mechanisms. Suppose if the detector is ultraviolet detector then the source of ultraviolet light is shown on the separated sample and based on absorbance of a certain amount of light they are identified or separated. The detector can detect the individual molecules that comes out of the column and passes to the recorder or computer.ComputerIt is also known as the data system which controls and stores all the data. With the help of the computer entire process is controlled and the chromatography is carried out.Please correct me If I was wrong and Let me know what I can add more to this post.Thank you for comingHave a nice day