Chemical/Laboratory Techniques: Thin Layer Chromatography

Thin layer chromatography (TLC) is a useful tool to rapidly get a rough idea of how many compounds are present in a mixture, to follow the course of a reaction, and to select the right mobile phase for column chromatography (https://youtu.be/-4S6L_szMU8). It can also be used to identify unknown compounds.In TLC, the stationary phase is a layer of adsorbent material, usually silica, fixed on aluminium foil. The mobile phase (eluent) is adsorbed in the pores of the stationary phase through capillary action. This allows the eluent to move vertically through the stationary phase. The components in the mixture will interact with both the mobile and stationary phase. These interactions will determine how far up the TLC a compound will move. This video was created by N.N.H.M. Eisink, PhD, and T.R. Canrinus, PhD of the Faculty of Engineering and Science of the University of Groningen as an Open Educational Resource (OER) This video has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0) by the University of Groningen (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) The video can be downloaded from the OER platform Edusources for purposes allowed under the license terms: https://edusources.nl/en/materials/fa705497-3f4e-4d75-94d9-ad7ea7c8cd0b