ABSTRACT
Countercurrent chromatography (CCC), a support-free partition chromatography, is based on retention of either phase (stationary) of a two-phase liquid system in a rotating column under the action of centrifugal forces while the other liquid phase (mobile) is being continuously pumped through [1], So far, the technique has been mainly studied and used for preparative and analytical separation of organic and bioorganic substances. The studies of the last several years have shown that the technique can be applied to analytical and radiochemical separation, preconcentration, and purification of inorganic substances in solutions on a laboratory scale by use of various two-phase liquid systems. A feature of CCC as chromatographic method is the absence of sorbent or solid support for retaining the stationary phase. This feature defines the main advantages of the method, such as the absence of the substances being separated due to interaction with the sorbent matrix; variety of two-phase liquid systems that may be used; easy change from one partition system to another; absence of the problem of column regeneration, high preparation capacity and possibility to change a volume of the sample solution from 0.1 to 1000 mL and more.
