Chromatography Forum

Hiya

I’m sorry to say I only studied chromatography up to advanced higher chemistry level at school, I chose my ‘other option’ to study art. I am now doing my masters course and am looking at themes of reality, memory and truth, whether science makes us who we are and morality and physicality.

Keeping this as short as poss, I want to start ‘drawing’ with chromatography. I can get hold of materials and chemicals etc if I know which ones I need, but herein lies the problem - I was hoping a book or link or something could be recommended which details best stationary and mobile phases for separating body fluids using TLC, and also the indicator solutions required to show each result. This is probably not in the spirit of this forum? Sorry, I know I am here for very different reasons than the majority.

Hoping to be able to use some or all of the following:
Blood, Saliva, Urine, Vaginal Secretion, Tears, Sweat, Semen and Mucus.

I’m having a go at the moment with dismal results but I’m trying..
Thanks muchly for taking the time, hope someone can help.

Laura

This is probably not in the spirit of this forum? Sorry, I know I am here for very different reasons than the majority.

Laura,

I'll wager that most of us thought "Ooohhh, a CSI-type question" when we first saw the title of your post. Nonetheless we are not all narrow-minded nerdy types (although we do tend to lean towards that end of the spectrum). Anyway, you have posed an interesting question from a scientific viewpoint and I applaud your venture into an unusual art form. My suggestion is to visit the nearest academic library and find a book on biochemical techniques or lab methods and study the information on chromatography and TLC. That will get you started. Then you can seek out more information on this forum or try to contact a local scientist as a "mentor". Good luck with your endeavors!

Hi Laura

Welcome ! - a refreshing change indeed.

Your best course will be to find yourself a co-worker who knows the technical procedures - a scientific equivalent of the artist craftsmen in e.g. glassware who have the technical skills to turn an artist's conception into a physical object.

While not strictly chromatography a pioneering chemist called Runge created "self=drawn pictures" by inorganic chemical reactions on paper http://chromatographyonline.findanalyti ... rticle.pdf

When you have your pictures, please let us see them.

Peter

Hi
Indeed something new.

As Peter stated good idea to try to get hold of someone with technical knowledge to exchange ideas with.

If you want to read some your self:
Thin-Layer Chromatography, fourth edition by Bernad Fried and Joseph Sherma, published by Marcel Dekker Inc. ISBN: 0-8247-0222-0.

Seems like a good introduction to TLC. Also chapter 4 "Obtaining MAterial for TLC and Sample preparation" contains a subchapter for Humans where references are mentioned for saliva for example.

Suppliers of TLC material may also offer free booklets or application notes if you are lucky.

Thankyou so much for the support!

I have had help from an old teacher, but I am going to contact the university and see if a student or tutor might be interested in what I am doing.

I had a tutorial yesterday and am also considering making animations/films of my drawing process. I'm getting good results drawing with ink and chromatographing(?) the drawing but the fluids are not playing the game at all haha, I'm off to the university library now to find these suggested books and more.

Runge's work is great for my research!

Will link to my work in progress and when it is finished if you are interested, thanks for the enthusiasm

Laura

Since I remembered seeing something on TLC art, I checked google and was appalled that both in English and German there were a lot of links to TLC and DC that had nothing to do with chromatography. However, I found this:

http://www.wiley-vch.de/publish/dt/book ... t11dsq1t15

this book appears to have a section devoted to TLC art.

Since I remembered seeing something on TLC art, I checked google and was appalled that both in English and German there were a lot of links to TLC and DC that had nothing to do with chromatography.

Hans, you will be similarly appalled if you ever Google the initials of the Food abd Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Peter

Per the link HW Mueller posted, I googled "chromart" and got this:

http://homepage.mac.com/khalpaap/Chromart/index.html

http://homepage.mac.com/khalpaap/Chroma ... mart2.html

Some interesting art is available on this site, all done with TLC plates.