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7694394 
Journal Article 
On a deficiency of the concept of the eluotropic series 
Kowalska, T; Klama, B; , 
1997 
Yes 
Journal of Planar Chromatography - Modern TLC
ISSN: 0933-4173 
SPRINGER HUNGARICA KIADO KFT 
BUDAPEST 
353-357 
WOS:A1997YH09000006 
The eluotropic series of solvents was developed to help chromatographers select solvents for (predominantly multicomponent) mobile phases, It is based on an unspoken assumption that the more active the adsorbent, the weaker a given solvent will prove to be. In other words, the concepts of eluent strength and eluotropic series relate to adsorbent activity as a singular property of a given stationary phase, indirectly implying that independent of the adsorbent applied the retention mechanism is governed by one type of active site only. In Snyder's approach this evident simplification is known as nonlocalization of solvent adsorption (later only partially amended by the solvent localization concept). This formal trick can, however, hardly be applied for elucidation of experimental results obtained from systems employing adsorbents with more than one type of active site (e.g., alumina). It can easily be demonstrated that for these more complicated stationary phases a single-value eluotropic series of solvents is to some extent misleading and that replacement with a multi-value series would most probably be more confusing than helpful.