Thin Layer Chromatography

In many experiments, it is important to be able to separate a mixture into its chemical components in order to isolate one compound or to assess the purity of the mixture. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) is one of the easiest and most versatile methods of doing this because of its low cost, simplicity, quick development time, high sensitivity, and good reproducibility. TLC is used by many industries and fields of research, including pharmaceutical production, clinical analysis, industrial chemistry, environmental toxicology, food chemistry, water, inorganic, and pesticide analysis, dye purity, cosmetics, plant materials, and herbal analysis. In its simplest form, glass plates are coated with a uniform layer of silica gel (SiO2). The dissolved sample is placed on the plate, and the plate is inserted into a screw-top jar containing the developing solvent and a piece of filter paper. When the solvent has risen to near the top of the plate, the plate is removed, dried, and visualized using UV light. Variations on this protocol are used for different purposes, including pretreating the sample, changing the sorbent, plate material, the solvent system, the development techniques, and method of detection and visualization or by coupling TLC to other techniques.