Tswett Mikhail

Tswett, Mikhail Semenovich (1872-1919) Russian biochemist, father of chromatography who in 1906 first used the term chromatography (colour writing) to describe his work on the separation of plant pigments on a column of chalk using a petroleum ether eluant. 

Issaq HJ, Berezkin VG. Mikhail Semenovich Tswett the father of modern chromatography. In Issaq HJ (ed.), A Century of Separation Science. New York Marcel Dekker, Inc. 2002, pp. 19-26. 

Russian scientist Mikhail Tswett (1872-1919) publishes the first description of chromatography. 

V. G. Berezkin (compiler), Chromatographic Adsorption Analysis Selected Works by Mikhail Semenovich Tswett, Ellis Horwood, New York, London, 1990. 

Chromatogra-phy refers to the separation of materials using their relative solubility and absorption differences in two immiscible phaseS/ one stationary and the other mobile. The defining work of Mikhail Tswett in 1903 demonstrated the separation of colored plant pigments on a carbohydrate powder through which hydrocarbon solvents were passed. The same principles apply to the rainbow-like dispersion of colors seen when ink soaks through a shirt pocket. 

Berezkin, V.G. (1990) Chromatographic Adsorption Analysis. Selected iVorks of Mikhail Semenovitch Tswett, Ellis Horwood, London. 

Despite these many differences, chromatography, and in fact all separations, have a deep underlying unity that is reflected both theoretically and historically. Chromatography is now (arguably) the most widely used analytical technique. Highly sophisticated chromatographic instruments are available from many manufacturers, but of course this was not always so. In fact, the word chromatograph was first coined in 1906 by Mikhail Tswett (1872-1919). 

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