Solvent systems in centrifugal partition chromatography.

Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) or countercurrent chromatography (CCC) is a kind of liquid-liquid chromatography without solid phase. Two immiscible liquids in equilibrium share the total volume of a ''column'' designed to keep one phase pseudo-stationary. A tremendous variety of biphasic systems are available, which can lead to some difficulty when a selection must be made. Ternary diagrams, describing mixtures of three solvents, and systems with four solvents or more, used by research scientists familiar with this chromatographic technique, are useful guides for a rational choosing of a biphasic system in CCC & CPC.