Terms Referring to Sample Component Separation

Relative retention The relative retention, or the column selectivity, is defined as the ratio of the adjusted retention times or volumes of two components under identical conditions  

As defined by equation (18), the value of a is usually larger than 1, which means that compound 2 is retained longer on the column than compoimd 1. The value of a is affected by the natvu e of the stationary phase and the temperature. For a given colvunn, it is a function of the temperature. 

Resolution The resolution is the degree of separation between two peaks and is defined as follows  

the interference between two peaks becomes stronger and stronger, and the valley between two peaks even disappears at R=0.5. 

Separation number The separation number (SN), or Trennzahl (TZ) in German, is the possible number of peaks between two consecutive peaks of n-paraffin  

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