Question

Briefly state what happens to a mixture of compounds with different chemical properties, when this mixture is subjected to thin-layer chromatography.

Answer 1

Thin Layer chromatography (TLC) is a technique which is generally used for separating organic mixtures.
TLC consists of two phases, stationary phase and mobile phase. The mobile phase which is generally a mixture of a polar and non polar solvent. The stationary phase is the layer of silica particles. The interaction between molecules and silica particles plays the crucial rule to separate the compounds in the mixture.

As silica particles are polar, polar molecules get attached more to the silica particles. Then the solvent takes more time to elute. So, based on the polarity of the molecules, affinity with silica changes and thus the rise time increases.

So, more polar molecules will take more time to elute whereas less polar molecules will be separated first.