Separation Anxiety: An In-Class Game Designed To Help Students Discover Chromatography

摘要

Discussions of chromatography in the analytical classroom often begin with theory related to partition coefficients and the van Deemter equation and often end with instrumentation and application (1, 2). Peppered throughout these discussions are equations and terms that allow one to characterize, describe, and optimize a separation. While many students can employ an equation, or even perform experimental procedures involving chromatography, some have a difficult time envisioning the actual process producing the separation. Helping students understand chromatographic separations as an equilibrium process can be difficult.