Thin Layer Chromatography Report

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University of Cincinnati, Main Campus *

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2040L

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Chemistry

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Dec 6, 2023

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pdf

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Case Trokhan Due Date: September 12, 2023 Thin Layer Chromatography Lab Report Purpose: The purpose of this experiment was to become familiar with the technique of thin layer chromatography. Compound Distance Traveled Solvent Utilized Trans-stilbene 70% hexane 30% dichloromethane Dimethoxybenzene 70% hexane 30% dichloromethane Trans-cinnamic acid 50% hexane, 50% dichloromethane Unknown Spot 1 70% hexane 30% dichloromethane Unknown Spot 2 50% hexane, 50% dichloromethane Questions: 1. a. If the spots are too large it may be difficult to distinguish the spots from each other and there may be bleeding from one line into the next. b. If the solvent front is not marked, the Rf value is unable to be calculated because the denominator of that equation is the distance from the origin point to the solvent line. c. If the solvent is too low a polarity the spots will not drag and will not differentiate from the origin line. d. If the solvent is too high of polarity the spots could run off of the top or all be even with the solvent front which would make it difficult to differentiate between spots. e. If the spots were below the solvent line they would not be pulled along by capillary action and would not move enough from their original line. 2. If the solvent was switched from hexane-diethyl ether to hexane only, the system would switch from a polar solvent to a nonpolar solvent. This would make it so that the spots would not drag and would remain on the origin line. This would greatly lower the Rf values. 3. If the Rf values of two compounds are very similar there is a large possibility that they could be the same compound. To confirm this a second test could be performed with a solvent that is higher in polarity. This would increase the distance that the spots would run and possibly give more space for them to differentiate from each other. 4.
Compound Distance Moved (cm) Rf Solvent 8.6 N/A Azulene 4.0 .465 nitro-phthalic acid 1.2 .140 ferrocene 3.5 .407 trans-stilbene 4.8 .558 Discussion: The purpose of this experiment was to become familiar with the technique of thin layer chromatography and use it to determine which two compounds were mixed to create an unknown solution. By following the procedure, two silica gels were prepared and run. The first gel was run and the spot on the left did not move from the origin line nor did the second of the two unknown spots. Because of this a second gel was run with a more polar solvent to test just those two spots in an attempt to increase the amount of movement from the origin line. The distances each spot ran were measured, and the Rf values were calculated. From that the Rf values of the unknown were compared to the Rf values of three different known solutions and the unknown was determined to be a mixture of trans-stilbene and trans-cinnamic. Any slight differences in the Rf values of the unknown and known substances can be attributed to experimental error. These differences are most likely due to human error and inconsistency as this experiment required a person to place relatively equal sized spots of solutions equidistant from the top of the gel and spread evenly across the gel. If some spots were bigger than others there could be a slightly longer run. The measurements made were not terrible precise as the middle of each spot was estimated and measurements were taken with a plastic ruler. To minimize the human error we could have calculated the middle of the spot more accurately and also could have used a more precise measuring tool to determine the distances each spot traveled. Analysis:
Figure 1. First Silica Gel (left to right: trans-cinnamic, unknown #4, dimethoxybenzene, trans-stilbene) Figure 2. Second Silica Gel (left to right: trans-cinnamic acid, unknown #4) Compound Rf Value Trans-stilbene .633 Dimethoxybenzene .267
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Trans-cinnamic .156 Unknown #5 spot 1 .156 Unknown #5 spot 2 .667