Resolution (chromatography)


In chromatography, resolution is a measure of the separation of two peaks of different retention time t in a chromatogram.

Expression

Chromatographic peak resolution is given by
where tR is the retention time and wb is the peak width at baseline. Here compound 1 elutes before compound 2.
If the peaks have the same width

Plate number

The theoretical plate height is given by
where L is the column length and N the number of theoretical plates. The relation between plate number and peak width at the base is given by