Multidimensional planar chromatography

Research Institute for Medicinal Plants, Budakaldsz, Hungary 

Unquestionably, most practical planar chromatographic (PC) analytical problems can be solved by the use of a single thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) plate and for most analytical applications it would be impractical to apply two-dimensional (2-D) TLC. One-dimensional chromatographic systems, however, often have an inadequate capability for the clean resolution of the compounds present in complex biological samples, and because this failure becomes increasingly pronounced as the number of compounds increases (1), multidimensional (MD) separation procedures become especially important for such samples. 

In the following diseussion, two-dimensional and multidimensional planar ehromatography are defined, the above-mentioned possibilities are diseussed in detail, and attention is drawn to the different possibilities, as well as the advantages and limitations of the various modes of multidimensional planar ehromatography. 

MD-PC is highly important in its own right, because this is the only real multidimensional separation method in which all compounds can be passed to a next dimension. It therefore serves as the reference system (7) against which all other multidimensional systems can be compared. 

---

Kovar, K.-A. and Morlock, G., DUnnschicht-Chromatographie, in Untersuchungs-methoden in der Chemie, Naumer H. and Heller, W., Eds., Stuttgart, 1997, p. 57. Nyiredy, Sz., Ed., Multidimensional planar chromatography, in Planar Chromatography — A Retrospective View for the Third Millennium, Springer Scientific, Budapest,... 

Sz. Nyiredy, Multidimensional planar chromatography in Proceedings of the Diinnschicht-Chromatographi (in memoria Prof. Dr. Hellmut Jork), R. E. Kaiser, W. Gunther, H. Gunz and G. Wulff (Eds), InCom Sonderband, Dtisseldorf, pp. 166-185 (1996). 

---