A new method of thin-layer chromatography with controlled vapor phase

A new version of thin-layer chromatography with controlled vapor phase is described. It has no analogues in planar and liquid chromatography. The method is based on a dynamic change in the physicochemical properties of a chromatographic system as a result of the contact of the plate bearing analytes with a vapor phase of certain composition created in the chromatographic chamber. The active vapor phase is created either by pumping a gas through the chromatographic chamber or by introducing a solvent vapor from another part of the chamber. The composition and properties of the mobile phase are controlled immediately in the course of separation by means of absorption or adsorption of one or another gas with the mobile or stationary phase. By the examples of benzoic acids and nitroaniline isomers in the presence of carbon oxide and vapors of acetic acid, ammonia, and ethanol, it was shown that this procedure utilizes the difference in the protolytic and solvation properties of adsorbates for changing the adsorption equilibrium and the selectivity and efficiency of separation.