Retention Factor
Q1: What is Rf Value?
Answer:
The Rf value is also called the retention factor and it is defined as the ratio of distance travelled by the solute particle to the ratio of distance travelled by the solvent particle.
Q2: What is Retention Factor Formula?
Answer:
The formula used to calculate the retention factor is added below,
Retention Factor (Rf) = (Distance Travelled by Solute Particle)/(Distance Travelled by Solvent Particle)
Q3: What does a High Rf value mean?
Answer:
The high value of the retention factor signifies that the interaction between the compound and the surface is very strong. We can also deduce by the high Rf value that the compound has a high solubility in the mobile phase.
Q4: Can the value of the Retention Factor be greater than 1?
Answer:
No, the Rf can never exceed the 1 value as the Rf value of close to one signifies that the spot and the solvent front are close enough and therefore the data is unreliable.
Retention Factor
Retention Factor formula is one of the formulas used in the chromatography technique for separating various components of the mixtures. In paper chromatography when a solution is placed at the base level, the solute and solvent travel some distance. The components of the solutions are retained on the paper. The amount of retention can be expressed using a factor called the Retention Factor.
In this article, we will learn about Chromatography, the Retention factor, its formula and others in detail.