Electrostatic interactions in normal and reversed-phase high-performance thin-layer chromatography. Preliminary experiments

Summary The retention behaviour of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons having nearly equal ionization potentials but different molecular polarizability values was investigated using normal and reversed-phase high-performance TLC systems. Homologous series of hydrocarbons and n-alcohols were applied as the mobile phases. The electrostatic interactions operating in these chromatographic systems were analysed by studying the relationship between the log 1/R_F values and the molecular polarizabilities of solutes and solvents.