High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a chromatographic technique of great versatility and analytical power that can be applied to any compound with solubility in a liquid that can be used as the mobile phase. HPLC is widely used in food analysis to quantitate small molecules and ions and to separate and characterize macromolecules. This chapter describes the details and various options for each of the HPLC system components: pump, injector, column, detector, and data system. A broad variety of column-packing materials have contributed greatly to the widespread use of HPLC. The chapter includes details and example applications for separations achieved with normal-phase, hydrophilic interaction, reversed phase, hydrophobic interaction, ion-exchange, size-exclusion, and affinity chromatography.