ABSTRACT
Thin layer chromatography is not the ideal chromatographic system for accurate quantitative analysis. The technique can be an excellent tool for qualitative work and for scouting different mobile phase systems for liquid chromatography [1]. It is also the only chromatographic technique which presents a complete profile of the separation and, as a consequence, reveals the extent to which elution is complete. The main advantage of the technique, however, resides in its low cost, but to ensure adequate accuracy and precision in quantitative assays, expensive scanning apparatus is usually necessary which undermines the intrinsic low cost advantages of the technique. Thin layer chromatography appears to have been first developed and utilized by Schraiber in 1939 [2], who, working with Izmailov at the Khar’kov Chemistry and Pharmacy Research Institute, employed the technique, largely qualitatively, for the analysis of pharmaceuticals. In addition to inventing the technique itself, Schraiber also was the first to employ fluorescence as the separation indicator or detection system. Unfortunately, Schraiber’s work was not heeded and so no progress was made until the technique was rediscovered by Kirchner [3] in 1951.
