Chromatography (from Greek χρώμα:chroma, colour and γραφειν:"grafein" to write) is the collective term for a family of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures. It involves passing a mixture dissolved in a "mobile phase" through a stationary phase, which separates the analyte to be measured from other molecules in the mixture and allows it to be isolated.
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Describing the time between sample injection and the appearance of a given solute’s eluted peak maximum, retention time is adjusted to account for a column’s void volume.