Im from biotech field and I suck in chemistry... I dont even fully know the principles of chromatography...
But somehow fate pulls me into a chemistry field and I need to learn from scratch.. I hope there are chemistry experts here... Lets start by introducing ourselves so that the comments or advice given is more credible.. Ill start even though im a noob..

Education: Biotechnology (USM)
Current status: Masters in Biochemistry (Hokkaido University)

and I have a basic problem.. WHat are the purpose of HPLC?? to purify a compound? And why cant I just throw my unknown compound in and purify it??

Actually I have a bigger discussion but just wanna start by getting to know if there are any experts here first.. no use going into the question if theres nobody here who can help

Education: pharmacy degree first year.

i might be wrong but i dont think chromatography is used mainly for purification of unknown compound. it is used to isolate and therefore identify the unknown compound. of course the HPLC is able to purify a compound as well.

i assume that there are no better method available to analyze the unknown compound? or chromatography is a good way to tell what a mixture is consist of, maybe there are A, B, C, D, E in a mixture and chromatography is a good way to actually separate them.

quote from here

“Chiral”columns have been developed relatively recently to separate optical isomers. This separation is important because many pharmaceuticals are active in only one chiral form. For instance, natural Vitamin E is D-a-tocopherol, while half of synthetic Vitamin E is the less active L- isomer.

so now, we have a alternative way to separate the isomers compare to the conventional ways where you have to react the mixture of optical isomers with another compound and then you regenerate the isomers you want etc.

lets hope others can help u better.

c00kie ur studying in hokkaido?

except jerk here i dont see any other who could help me..

where u studying now jerk? If i discusss research paper with you, do think u can help me?

Curtin Australia to be exact.

seriously i dont really think i can help you much. why dont you refer to some books to look up more on chromatography?

i only done simple paper chromatography back in pre-Uni. therefore, i did learn a little about the most basic and fundamental principles behind chromatography. HPLC is surely more complicated than that.

i will send you some links. i think that is the best i could help.

Education: Chemical Engineering Year 2

Your discussions onli fixed for HPLC? personally i did not really study much bout it, onli learnt basic chromatography. But what i think is, HPLC suppose to separate the compounds in order to identify the unknown compounds within the liquid? never heard of using it as a purification process.

Purifying usually deal with separation processes like distillation, filtration, leeching, adsorption processes..

Do google up for the definitions and functions of HPLC if u r not sure bout it..