Electrochromatography is a chemical separation technique in analytical chemistry

Analytical chemistry

Analytical chemistry is the study of the separation, identification, and quantification of the chemical components of natural and artificial materials. Qualitative analysis gives an indication of the identity of the chemical species in the sample and quantitative analysis determines the amount of...

, biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 and molecular biology

Molecular biology

Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...

 used to resolve and separate mostly large biomolecule

Biomolecule

A biomolecule is any molecule that is produced by a living organism, including large polymeric molecules such as proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, and nucleic acids as well as small molecules such as primary metabolites, secondary metabolites, and natural products...

s such as protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

s. It is a combination of size exclusion chromatography

Size exclusion chromatography

Size-exclusion chromatography is a chromatographic method in which molecules in solution are separated by their size, and in some cases molecular weight . It is usually applied to large molecules or macromolecular complexes such as proteins and industrial polymers...

 (gel filtration chromatography) and gel electrophoresis

Gel electrophoresis

Gel electrophoresis is a method used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge and or size and in biochemistry and molecular biology to separate a mixed population of DNA and RNA fragments by length, to estimate the size of DNA and RNA fragments or to separate proteins by charge...

. These separation mechanisms operate essentially in superposition along the length of a gel filtration column to which an axial electric field gradient has been added. The molecules are separated by size due to the gel filtration mechanism and by electrophoretic mobility due to the gel electrophoresis

Gel electrophoresis

Gel electrophoresis is a method used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge and or size and in biochemistry and molecular biology to separate a mixed population of DNA and RNA fragments by length, to estimate the size of DNA and RNA fragments or to separate proteins by charge...

 mechanism. Additionally there are secondary chromatographic solute retention mechanisms.

See also

• Chromatography
  Chromatography
  Chromatography is the collective term for a set of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures....
  
  
• Size exclusion chromatography
  Size exclusion chromatography
  Size-exclusion chromatography is a chromatographic method in which molecules in solution are separated by their size, and in some cases molecular weight . It is usually applied to large molecules or macromolecular complexes such as proteins and industrial polymers...
  
  
• Gel electrophoresis
  Gel electrophoresis
  Gel electrophoresis is a method used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge and or size and in biochemistry and molecular biology to separate a mixed population of DNA and RNA fragments by length, to estimate the size of DNA and RNA fragments or to separate proteins by charge...
  
  
• Protein electrophoresis
  Protein electrophoresis
  Protein electrophoresis is a method for analysing the proteins in a fluid or an extract. The electrophoresis may be performed with a small volume of sample in a number of alternative ways with or without a supporting medium: SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis Protein electrophoresis is a method...
  
  
• Electrofocusing
• Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis
  Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis
  Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, abbreviated as 2-DE or 2-D electrophoresis, is a form of gel electrophoresis commonly used to analyze proteins...
  
  
• Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis
  Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis
  Temperature Gradient Gel Electrophoresis and Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis are forms of electrophoresis which use either a temperature or chemical gradient to denature the sample as it moves across an acrylamide gel. TGGE and DGGE can be applied to nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA,...