Hi All, I'm currently meet some difficulty from my research. I found that the solvent (no matter polar - acetone or non polar - hexane) used to re-extract the compound from preparative TLC tends to dissolve the sillica gel powder. So after I purge my sample by N2 gas, the silica gel is sticking on the wall of container.
May I know have any other solution??
Silica gel should not be soluble in organic solvents, unless the pH is extremely high. You may be seeing either the binder used as an additive to help the silica gel stick to the plate, or small particles of silica gel that were suspended, rather than dissolved. To eliminate the latter, try filtering the extract through a microporous membrane filter before evaporating it with nitrogen. Glass fiber and/or Teflon filters should be useful for that. As far as the binders are concerned, check with the plate manufacturer and ask if any binders are used in their silica gel plates, and see if you can find some binder-free plates.
Hi Lim,
You have allot of water in your mixture , therefore first take off all water from the mixture and use dry solvent for extraction.If your compound is hygroscopic you need to work under nitrogen and not under atmospheric air.Good Luck
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