Part 1 Micellar Thin Layer Chromatography : Separation of Heavy Metals

Surfactants have long been used as mobile phase components in ion pair chromatography (IPC) and micellar liquid chromatography (MLC). Interest in MLC has grown rapidly and it is now being used as substitute for traditional liquid chromatography with reversed phases. The fascinating feature of miceller systems is the presence of three phases (micellermicropseudo phase, bulk mobile phase and the stationary phase) that provides of multiple interactions, resulting in unique simultaneous separation capabilities of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds. The applicability of a quadratic relationship between the time of mobile phase motion and the distance from the solvent entry position of mobile phase and front of the mobile phase was validated for micellar TLC.