Use of a Computer Controlled Hand-scanner for Quantitative Thin Layer Chromatographic Analysis

Abstract

A microcomputer controlled hand-scanner was used as a densitometer for the quantitation of analytes after separation by TLC (thin layer chromatography). This densitometric process is based on measuring light intensity and counting the number of pixels covering the spots obtained for the analytes after TLC separation. The combination of the aforementioned process with the internal standardization method (ISM) of quantification enabled reliable quantitative data to be obtained for TLC. This methodology, which is simple and relatively inexpensive, has been successfully applied in the TLC analysis of ionic dyes, with less than 2% levels of precision and accuracy.