Flash chromatography is an integral part of the organic synthesis workflow. For most chemists, they make a compound once and then move on to the next synthesis. Sometimes, the synthesis needs to be scaled up and in those instances, its reaction mixture purification also needs scaling, especially if crystallization is not an efficient option.
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Flash chromatography is nearly ubiquitous within organic and medicinal chemistry labs. Most chemists, when the need arises to purify a reaction mixture, will use a silica column (aka normal-phase) for flash chromatography. This purification technique utilizes a column filled with silica and lipophilic solvents such as hexane, heptane, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate. For polar and/or basic compounds, chemists will add methanol and a strong base (for basic compounds) to try the get their product to separate and elute.
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