the invention discloses a method for rapid identification of a candidate selective separation material by placing small samples of the candidate material in an array of vials and adding a solution of the analytes to be separated . the solution is allowed to interact or equilibrate and the distribution of the analytes in the solid or liquid phase is measured usually by gas or liquid chromatography . the identified candidate material with the greatest differential adsorption of the analytes is selected and used as an adsorbent for large scale separation . the rapid screening of chromatographic adsorbents provides an efficient way of finding suitable absorbent materials for large scale separations .