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Adsorption is accumulation of a substance at an interface. Binding a solute to a packing surface can delay its passage through a chromatography column. Ideal size-exclusion chromatography separates through SEC pore access without such binding; extra retention from adsorption requires a different interpretation.

Chromatography separates components of a mixture through different migration rates in contact with a chromatographic stationary phase while a chromatographic mobile phase transports them. Liquid chromatography describes the physical state of the transporting phase; size-exclusion chromatography describes a separation mechanism. Classification by phase and classification by mechanism answer different questions. In ideal size-exclusion chromatography, differential access to liquid-filled pores replaces binding as the source of differential migration.