Affinity to mobile or stationary phase during column chromatography I have carried a column chromatography and obtained two compounds. The first one is liquid (ester) and the second one is solid (nitro) yet I know that the second compound is less polar than the first one. Why does the result differ from the knowledge about polarity (the more polar the molecule is, the slower the compound)?
I don’t know in which universe you would consider a dinitrobenzene less polar than an ethyl ester but this universe is not the correct one.

As your experimental data (the $R_\mathrm f$ values of the two eluted compounds) clearly show, the dinitrobenzene is more polar than ethyl benzoate.