Tlc Analysis of a Drug Component

To Wesley Clark From Lizzie Heath Date March 4, 2013 Subject Thin-Layer Chromatographic Analysis of Drug Components (Experiment 15) The purpose of this experiment is to determine the components of an unknown drug and identify it as one of six (6) commercial drugs by using thin-layer chromatography. I added approximately a quarter of a tablet of acetaminophen, aspirin, caffeine, ibuprofen, salicylamide, and the unknown (19) to pause test tubes containing 2. 5mL of dichloromethane. I noticed that my unknown was a coated tablet.Each test tube was swirled until the greatest amount of each solid was dissolved. Each solution was descry along a labeled starting line on the silica gel TLC plate. The TLC plate was put into a developing sleeping room containing 2001 acetic acid and allowed to developed until the solvent reached almost to the top of the TLC plate, which took about 10 minutes. When the TLC plate finished developing, I observed the plate under UV light and noticed that the sa licylamide was the only spot that fluoresced purple while all the other spots fluoresced blue and I also noticed that the unknown had 2 spots.I traced around the spots for each solution on the TLC plate, the only spot that I did not visit was the one for the ibuprofen. I then placed it into an iodine chamber and noticed that the acetaminophen turned a yellowish color. I measured that the solvent travelled 64mm up the TLC plate by using the starting line as a reference, and, by using that information, I was able to calculate the Rf value of each solution by using Rf= distance traveled by the spotDistance traveled by the solvent I used that jurisprudence to get the following information for the table below Commercial DrugRf Value Acetaminophen0. 500 Aspirin0. 781 Caffeine0. 125 Ibuprofen0 Salicylamide0. 719 Unknown0. 109 & 0. 734 I am able to determine that my unknown bosom contains aspirin, but I am not sure what the other substance is. I can speculate that the other substance is the coating from the tablet of the unknown.