Combining TLC Separation with MS Detection - A Revival of TLC

Abstract

It is very likely that every natural scientist has at least heard about thin-layer chromatography (TLC) because its fundamentals are taught in all basic courses of chemistry and biochemistry. TLC is widely used in preparative organic chemistry for a first check of a reaction mixture to monitor how many different products were generated. One typical application in biochemistry is the separation of plant dyes; this is particularly simple because the analytes are coloured and, thus, no staining step is necessary.