A New Anionic Micellar Mobile Phase System for the Normal-Phase Thin-Layer Chromatography of Amino Compounds: Simultaneous Separation of Aminophenol Isomers

The chromatography of some amino compounds was performed on high-performance thin-layer plates (silica-gel 60 F₂₅₄, catalog no. 1.05554, Merck, Germany) using aqueous and alcoholic (MeOH) and aqueous–organic solutions of cationic, anionic, and nonionic surfactants. The results obtained with 0.01 M aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) have been compared with distilled water (i.e., zero SDS) as the eluent. The effects of the surfactant concentration, the nature of the alcohol, and the presence of inorganic salts (NaCl, LiCl, CaCl₂, and CoCl₂) in the mobile phase were examined in order to understand the mobility pattern of amino compounds. Among the added salts, CaCl₂ was found to be the most effective for facilitating an analytically important separation of coexisting ortho-, meta-, and para-aminophenols. The TLC system consisting of a precoated high-performance silica layer as the stationary phase and 0.01 M methanolic SDS plus 0.1 M CaCl₂ in a 3 : 7 ratio as the mobile phase was identified as the most suitable system for the separation of o-, m-, and p-APHS from their mixtures. The influence of various impurities, such as amines, phenols, and inorganic cations, on the mobility and the separation of coexisting aminophenol isomers has also been examined. The lower limits of detection of aminophenols were determined on HPTLC plates using I₂ vapors as the detection reagent.