Archer John Porter Martin

Archer John Porter Martin
(1910-2002)

British biochemist who was awarded (with R.L.M. Synge) the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1952 for development of paper partition chromatography, a quick and economical analytical technique permitting extensive advances in chemical, medical, and biological research.
Martin obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1936 and worked as a research chemist for the Wool Industries Research Association in Leeds from 1938 to 1946. He then became head of biochemical research at the Boots Pure Drug Company, Nottingham, and held the post until 1948, when he was appointed to the staff of the British Medical Research Council. From 1959 to 1970 he was director of Abbotsbury Laboratories, Ltd.

Martin and Synge invented paper partition chromotography in 1944. Partition chromatography depends on the partition, or distribution, of each component of a mixture between two immiscible liquids. One of the liquids is held stationary by strong adsorption on the surface of a finely divided solid while the other flows through the interstices of the solid particles. Any substance that preferentially dissolves in the mobile liquid is more rapidly transported in the direction of flow than is a substance that has greater affinity for the stationary liquid. In 1953 Martin and A.T. James helped perfect gas chromatography, the separation of chemical vapours by differential absorption on a porous solid.