MACHEREY-NAGEL – Products for thin layer chromatography (TLC/HPTLC)
MACHEREY-NAGEL and Chromatography
We provide optimal and reliable solutions for your laboratory work in sample preparation, method development and routine analysis.
MACHEREY-NAGEL Chromatography – complete solutions for your analysis
From a pioneer in chromatography to a full-range supplier of laboratory consumables, we supply laboratories around the world with HPLC, GC and SPE columns, TLC/HPTLC plates, autosampler vials, closures and more.
MACHEREY-NAGEL offers a versatile range of ready-to-use TLC and HPTLC layers, which are the result of 50 years of continuous research and development in thin layer chromatography.
The comprehensive range of TLC products from MACHEREY-NAGEL includes:
TLC/HPTLC glass plates
ADAMANT, SIL G or SIL HD are silica layers on glass backing. It’s hard to imagine a laboratory without our reliable TLC and HPTLC glass plates.
ALUGRAM and POLYGRAM TLC/HPTLC sheets are easy to handle, lightweight and flexible.
High performance silica on ALUGRAM Xtra sheets provides outstanding wettability for precise colourisation results. Moreover these TLC sheets are easy to cut with scissors.
Accessories
In addition to high quality TLC plates and sheets, we offer staining reagents and developing chambers, as well as introductory sets for educational purposes.
TLC/HPTLC plates and sheets consist of an adsorbent stationary phase on a backing support.
MACHEREY-NAGEL offers three different backings:
- Glass plates
- Aluminium sheets
- Polyester sheets
Properties of TLC backings
Glass Plates
- Thickness (approx.): 1.3mm
- Weight and storage requirements: high
- Torsional strength: ideal
- Temperature stability: high
- Susceptible to breakage: yes
- Can be cut with scissors: no
- Chemical resistance against solvents: high
- Chemical resistance against mineral acids and concentrated ammonia: high
- Suitability for aqueous detection reagents: depends on phases (layer)
Glass plates are robust, heat proof and chemically resistant to all common mobile phases and visualisation reagents. They are the traditional option in TLC/HPTLC and are widely used in the pharmaceutical sector and other laboratory environments.
Aluminium Sheets - ALUGRAM Xtra
- Thickness (approx.): 0.15mm
- Weight and storage requirements: low
- Torsional strength: relatively high
- Temperature stability: high
- Susceptible to breakage: no
- Can be cut with scissors: yes
- Chemical resistance against solvents: high
- Chemical resistance against mineral acids and concentrated ammonia: low
- Suitability for aqueous detection reagents: ALUGRAM: low to moderate, ALUGRAM Xtra: moderate to high
Aluminium sheets are easy to handle, lightweight and flexible. High performance silica on ALUGRAM Xtra sheets provides outstanding wettability for precise colourisation results, even with 100% aqueous detection reagents. Moreover, ALUGRAM Xtra sheets are easy to cut with scissors. No flaking of silica occurs!
Polyester Sheets – POLYGRAM
- Thickness (approx.): 0.2mm
- Weight and storage requirements: low
- Torsional strength: low
- Temperature stability: maximum 185°C
- Susceptible to breakage: no
- Can be cut with scissors: yes
- Chemical resistance against solvents: high
- Chemical resistance against mineral acids and concentrated ammonia: high
- Suitability for aqueous detection reagents: good
Polyester sheets are easy to handle, lightweight and flexible, and can also be cut with scissors. Developed POLYGRAM sheets can also be stored for documentation in laboratory notebooks.
Features of modern TLC/HPTLC
The success of thin layer chromatography as a highly efficient microanalytical separation method is based on a large number of advantageous properties:
- High sample throughput in a short time
- Suitable for screening tests
- Pilot procedure for HPLC and Flash chromatography
- After separation the analytical information can be stored for a longer period of time (the TLC ready-to-use layer acts as storage medium for data)
- Separated substances can be subjected to subsequent analytical procedures (e.g., IR, MS) at a later date
- Rapid and cost-efficient optimisation of the separation due to easy change of mobile and stationary phase
'TLC' and 'HPTLC' are both widely used terms in laboratory environments, but what is the difference? At MACHEREY-NAGEL, we define 'HPTLC' where at least one of the following criteria is being fulfilled:
- Layers with particle size 2–10 μm
- Layers prefixed with 'Nano'
- Modified layers
Narrow fractionation of HPTLC silica particles allows:
- Sharper separations
- Shorter developing times
- Shorter migration distances
- Smaller samples needed
- Increased detection sensitivity (compared to TLC)