title: Counter-current motion in counter-current chromatography.
abstract: After the CCC2012 meeting, I have received an e-mail regarding the terminology of "Countercurrent Chromatography". It stated that the term "Countercurrent" is a misnomer, because its stationary phase is motionless in the column and that the method should be renamed as liquid-liquid separations or centrifugal separations. However, it was found that these names are already used for various other techniques as found via Google search. The term "Countercurrent Chromatography" was originally made after two preparative methods of Countercurrent distribution and liquid Chromatography, both having no countercurrent motion in the column. However, it is surprising to find that this F1 hybrid method "Countercurrent Chromatography" can clearly exhibit countercurrent motion within the separation column in both hydrodynamic and hydrostatic equilibrium systems. This justifies that "Countercurrent Chromatography" is a proper term for this chromatographic method.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Bioseparation Technology, Biochemistry and Biophysics Center, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center drive, Bldg. 10, Rm. 8N230, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: itoy2@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Yoichiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ito
mesh_terms: D002845:Chromatography; D003377:Countercurrent Distribution; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D020407:Internet; D009038:Motion; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: Centrifugal separations; Countercurrent; Countercurrent chromatography; Liquid–liquid separations; Stationary phase; Terminology