A review of advances in two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography

Although there are many simple thin-layer chromatography (TLC) separations, many more are complex and involve more than a few components, that means having to use special high-performance TLC (HPTLC) plates or microspotting or banding devices to increase its resolving power if developing in only one direction. However, adding a second development to perform two-dimensional TLC (2D TLC) allows even better resolution of complex samples. This is because different modes of chromatography are being invoked by the use of one stationary phase with two mobile phases, bilayer plates, graft TLC, or multidimensional TLC. This paper is a review of recent applications that have benefitted from using 2D TLC in its various forms. They were chosen for their variety of sample types as well as the unique choices of plates and/or mobile phases made by the researchers to yield improved separations.