Gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography are analytical techniques used to separate compounds in a mixture. GC uses an inert gas as the mobile phase to carry vaporized analytes through a column coated with a stationary phase for separation. HPLC forces a liquid mobile phase at high pressure through a column packed with porous particles to separate compounds based on interactions with the stationary phase. Both techniques separate components by differences in partitioning between the mobile and stationary phases, with detectors then identifying and quantifying the separated analytes.