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Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: Washing away a stain

by Manny I. Fox Morone
December 8, 2021

 

A circular blue pattern emanating from a central point on a thin layer chromagraphy plate with flecks of white near the center.
Credit: Submitted by Ioan Fuller

While washing a thin-layer chromatography plate, Ioan Fuller saw this vibrant blue develop when water hit the plate’s stained silica. Fuller, a PhD student at the University of Otago, had stained the plate with a molybdenum-containing dye so that he could see the various phospholipids in a sample from types of shellfish used in kaimoana, traditional New Zealand seafood. During the experiment, just a few phospholipid spots were blue, but as Fuller washed the plate off so that he could reuse it, the water reacted with the leftover dye on the plate and created this expanse of blue. This design is about 5 cm on a side.

Submitted by Ioan Fuller

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