Cellulose plates (TLC and HPTLC)

For analysis of polar substances

The organic sorbent cellulose is particularly suitable for the separation of hydrophilic substances by partition chromatography. Merck Millipore cellulose plates include classical TLC grade or HPTLC plates for demanding high-performance separations: TLC cellulose layers are based on microcrystalline cellulose for standard separations, whereas HPTLC cellulose layers utilize high-purity rod-shaped microcrystalline cellulose resulting in a highly reduced diffusion of analytes for critical high-resolution separations.

Cellulose plates are available with or without fluorescent indicator. The fluorescent indicator used is a special fluorescent pigment that is stimulated to intense blue fluorescent emission at long-wave UV light of 366 nm and at short-wave UV light at 254 nm.

The special PEI cellulose is a polyethylenimine-modified cellulose, which acts as a strong basic anion exchanger. Due to these properties, it is mainly useful for analysis of substances with exchange-active, ionic groups such as amino acids, peptides and nucleotides or nucleosides.

Application of cellulose TLC and HPTLC
Typical applications of cellulose include the analysis of amino acids, carbohydrates, phosphates, nucleic acids and nucleic acid derivatives for:

• Detection of significantly high increases of amino acids in clinical laboratories
• 2-dimensional separations such as amino acid "fingerprints"
• Metabolic studies

F: fluorescence indicator with excitation wavelength 254/366 nm
PEI cellulose plates should be stored at 0 - 4 °C to reduce deterioration. As plates become old they might take on a brown coloration and should be discarded.