Special significance

The subsequent points of differences are of special significance:

i) In case of PC, cellulose paper acts as the stationary support that is flexible whereas in TLC, suitable adsorbent material is coated on to a glass, metal or plastic sheet that is rigid.

ii) In PC, the solvent rises by capillary action but in TLC solvent moves similar to that in liquid column chromatography.

iii) The establishment of chromatogram in PC might take various hours but TLC is much faster as it takes only half an hour or so.

iv) PC might be categorized as ascending, descending or circular types though it is commonly carried out in ascending mode. Instead, TLC is primarily ascending though it has a horizontal version as well.

v) Developing chambers used in PC and TLC are somewhat different as the paper needs to be hung along with a rod whereas the plate touches the bottom of the chamber in later case.

vi) For quantitative analysis, the paper strip with solute spot needs to be cut with scissors while in TLC, the spot portion requires to scrap. In both the cases, the solute is dissolved though paper is erased whereas adsorbent in TLC is filtered off.

vii) PC takes more time and is less reproducible whereas TLC is much faster and more reproducible.

viii) Both PC and TLC have been carried out using coated liquid phases and reversed phase versions have been developed.

ix) A plate concept has been adapted to TLC and high performance TLC has been developed whereas this is not the case with PC.

x) The choice of paper in PC is limited whereas in TLC, a variety of stationary phase surfaces are available.

xi) Not several automated instruments have been developed within PC contrary to TLC where automated sampler, capillary dispenser, developing chamber and documentation system with camera or software have been developed.