How does column chromatography work? (A-Level Chemistry)

We use column chromatography to purify an organic product. We begin with a glass column filled with a slurry of absorbent material. This could be aluminium oxide coated with water.We run a solvent through this column.As in all chromatography, we must have a stationary phase and a mobile phase. The stationary phase is the absorbent material. The mobile phase is the solvent.As our organic mixture (which we are purifying) drains through the column, the different phases of the mixture separate. This works because different phases will have different adsorptions (which can be thought of as attraction) to the stationary phase, and different solubility in the mobile phase. This will affect the speed at which the phases move through the column, so different phases will leave at different times, and the material is separated.