DEVELOPMENT OF MICROCHANNEL THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH INFRARED MICROSPECTROSCOPIC DETECTION

A new thin-layer chromatography (TLC) technique termed microchannel TLC, is described. Channels, having the dimensions 400 mu m X 200 mu m X 5 cm (W X D X L), have been packed with a zirconia stationary phase and used for TLC. Subsequent infrared microspectroscopic detection of organic dyes separated in these channels provided excellent diffuse reflectance spectra and an improvement in the minimum identifiable quantity by a factor of about 500 times over previous TLC work using microscope slides. This technique also requires smaller amounts of sample and stationary phase compared to conventional TLC techniques. A practical application of the separation and identification of four polyaromatic hydrocarbons (two of which are isomers) is also shown.