Chromatography Forum

Can we predict the degree of solubility of a compound by performing its TLC through the Rf value?

No

Thanks. What some of our seniors did was they found out the Rf value(NPTLC) of the compound using different solvents and used the solvent which gave the highest value for dissolving the compound and then performed its RPHPLC.

The reason they gave was that the solvent which gave the highest Rf value was the best solvent to dissolve the compound. Like in my case I was getting the highest Rf value in DMF but I used ACN. So do you think that could make any difference?

In normal-phase particularly, the "mobile phase strength" (stronger mobile phase gives a higher Rf in TLC)) depends partly on solubility of the analyte and partly on the relative affinity of the analyte and the solvent for the stationary phase (the mobile phase must displace the analyte from the stationary phase surface). Other things being equal, greater solubility will result in higher Rf, the problem is that other things are seldom equal!

thanks for the clarification