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RT&DC Moderators: Senior Staff
TLC Plates
- Thread starter Soma
- Start date
a TLC plate is not exactly a high-tech piece of equipment.
it's just a thin layer of silica gel (for polar substances) deposited on a backing of mylar, aluminum oxide or some other carrier.
oh look, it's a protocol!
1. Silica Gel GF254
- Weigh 25 g of Merck silica gel GF254 powder - suspend in 50 ml of dionized water
- Shake vigorously for 45 seconds in rubber-stoppered Erlenmeyer flask - 500 ml volume
- Pour thickened slurry into trough of Quicfit spreader
- Pull spreader with 0.25 mm trailing edge to prepare twenty one, 5X20 cm plates
- Allow plates to airdry (until they turn white) - 30-45 min.
- Activate plates by heating in an oven at 120 °C for 30 min prior to use. Such plates are approximately Activity Grade II.
the spreader makes the silica the right thickness... this is the main problem you might have. you could do it approximately, pouring it onto some level surface (im not sure what you could use as a backing, maybe heavy aluminum foil).. your results would be horribly inconsistent but it's better than no TLC at all, and since you can characterize with a color test, you don't need to depend on precise Rf values, as long as you achieve separation (assuming minimal resources, you might use a 'good pill' scraping and maybe ephedrine or something as a standard, to confirm that you're getting some separation.
then all you'd need are capillary tubes (which can be made from glass tubing if necessary), a glass solvent tank (which can be anything), a piece of filter paper and the solvents. 5% acetone/95% methanol *may* work if you can't get anything else.
on the other hand, TLC plates can't be used for any dark purposes so i don't think they'd be too difficult to obtain.
it's just a thin layer of silica gel (for polar substances) deposited on a backing of mylar, aluminum oxide or some other carrier.
oh look, it's a protocol!
1. Silica Gel GF254
- Weigh 25 g of Merck silica gel GF254 powder - suspend in 50 ml of dionized water
- Shake vigorously for 45 seconds in rubber-stoppered Erlenmeyer flask - 500 ml volume
- Pour thickened slurry into trough of Quicfit spreader
- Pull spreader with 0.25 mm trailing edge to prepare twenty one, 5X20 cm plates
- Allow plates to airdry (until they turn white) - 30-45 min.
- Activate plates by heating in an oven at 120 °C for 30 min prior to use. Such plates are approximately Activity Grade II.
the spreader makes the silica the right thickness... this is the main problem you might have. you could do it approximately, pouring it onto some level surface (im not sure what you could use as a backing, maybe heavy aluminum foil).. your results would be horribly inconsistent but it's better than no TLC at all, and since you can characterize with a color test, you don't need to depend on precise Rf values, as long as you achieve separation (assuming minimal resources, you might use a 'good pill' scraping and maybe ephedrine or something as a standard, to confirm that you're getting some separation.
then all you'd need are capillary tubes (which can be made from glass tubing if necessary), a glass solvent tank (which can be anything), a piece of filter paper and the solvents. 5% acetone/95% methanol *may* work if you can't get anything else.
on the other hand, TLC plates can't be used for any dark purposes so i don't think they'd be too difficult to obtain.
johnboy
Bluelight Crew
to you it may not be high tech, but to me, with bare minimum of high school chemistry its a bit daunting. let alone your average pill taker who has barely got their head around a reagent kit.
what soma is asking is if there will be commercially available a pre-packaged kit, complete with easy to read instructions, suitable for a beginner level person?
this is the prime audience of Bluelight, NOT people with science degrees and lab experience. i wish some of you would remember that from time to time...
theGamer had such kits available until very recently. he said work has to be done on some of the elements of the kit, and they would not be sold until he had a product he was happy with. i would very much like theGamer to email me soon as i have some information which could help him, and all of us, in making that possible.
what soma is asking is if there will be commercially available a pre-packaged kit, complete with easy to read instructions, suitable for a beginner level person?
this is the prime audience of Bluelight, NOT people with science degrees and lab experience. i wish some of you would remember that from time to time...
theGamer had such kits available until very recently. he said work has to be done on some of the elements of the kit, and they would not be sold until he had a product he was happy with. i would very much like theGamer to email me soon as i have some information which could help him, and all of us, in making that possible.