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FFF General Theory
What is Field-Flow Fractionation (FFF)?
Field-flow fractionation (FFF) is a set of high resolution liquid chromatography-like elution methods for separating and sizing a wide range of environmental samples.
Samples studied include:
- humic substances
- clays
- bacteria
- viruses
- suspended solids and sediments.
- polymers
FFF separation process
| Particles injected onto the column without the field or flow turned on are evenly distributed across the column. |
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| When a field is applied the solute zone is compressed into a narrow layer against one wall. |
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| When the liquid flow is initiated, the solute zone is carried downstream at a rate depending on the layer thickness, l, which can be related to the particle size, density, diffusion coefficient or thermal diffusion coefficient. |
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FFF subtechniques
Most common FFF subtechniques include sedimentation FFF (SdFFF), thermal FFF (ThFFF), and flow FFF (FlFFF)
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