Foremost among J.C. Gidding's many contributions to separation science
is the invention and development of field-flow fractionation. This ar
ticle is a nonmathematical overview of field-flow fractionation with a
discussion of general principles and the basic subtechniques of this
separation method. A brief review is given of some of the molecular an
d particle separations and characterizations which have been and are c
urrently being used which illustrate the broad potential of this metho
d. Since field-flow fractionation requires small samples for optimum p
erformance, the use of SPLITT for obtaining sized materials in up to g
ram quantities is also discussed. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.