TLC sheets are used for controlling the chemical reaction ,,,spots of compounds on TLC sheets make it useless again. What methods are used for purification these sheets?
TLC sheets are made to be used only once. Any attempt to clean them with high polar sovents will ruin the thin sheet of silica and its binding to the sheet support. If you want to save money my advice is to perform your analysis on smaller pieces of TLC, spotting micro-drops or in alternative try to prepare your own TLC sheet from silica and glass.
TLC plates are meant to be disposable. Washing plates with polar solvents after running TLC (provided there was no staining involved) will remove your compounds along with the binder keeping silica layer on the plate.
I agree with Alexander, the preparative optimum performance laminar chromatography (OPLC) was designed thanks to this possibility. One can use a TLC plate in a continuous way and detect the compounds with a detector. You can have a look to the following papers http://www.chromatographyonline.com/lcgc/data/articlestandard/lcgceurope/042004/82561/article.pdf
or
http://www.hptlc.com/pdf/2006pdf/poster/27_pecher.pdf
Even though, still if you want to reuse TLC plates, You run it in acetone.
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