High-Performance Liquid Chromatography: Instrumentation

The major components of an HPLC instrument are a mobile phase reservoir, pump, injector, column, detector, and data system.

The mobile phase reservoir consists of one or more solvent-storage glass bottles from which the solvent is drawn through pumping systems.

In gradient elution, the solvents are mixed before they enter the column.

An injection system, manual or automatic, introduces the analyte mixture into the mobile phase before it enters the column.

In the column, the analyte components are separated based on their interaction with the mobile and stationary phases.

Next, the separated sample constituents travel to the detector, which generates characteristic signals.

These signals are translated into a chromatogram by a computer-aided program, and the eluent goes into the waste.