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.

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.