1. A method of finding out which components a gaseous or liquid mixture contains that involves passing it through or over something that absorbs the different components at different rates: Chromatography involves the mixture of materials to be separated and percolated through a column or sheet of some suitable chosen absorbent; for example, an ion-exchange material; the substances least absorbed are least retarded and emerge the earliest; those more strongly absorbed emerge later.
2. The separation of chemical substances and particles; originally plant pigments and other highly colored compounds by differential movement through a two-phase system.

1. A separation technique using a resin (stationary phase), which may be basic or acidic, to bind ionized solutes (mobile phase) reversibly.
2. A chromatographic procedure in which the stationary phase consists of ion-exchange resins which may be acidic or basic.
3. The process of separating and analyzing different substances according to their affinities for chemically stable but very reactive synthetic exchanges, which are composed largely of polystyrene cellulose.

The process uses an absorbent containing ionizing groups and accommodates the exchange of ions between a solution of substance to be analyzed and the absorbent.

Ion exchange chromatography is often used to separate components of nucleic acids and proteins elaborated by various structures throughout the body.

Different ions deposited in the absorbent during the exchange produce bands of different colors, which constitute a chromatograph.