Unbreakable and customizable dipping chambers for TLC and HPTLC manufactured by fused deposition modelling

Abstract

Postchromatographic derivatization chambers for Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and its high-performance counterpart (HPTLC) are made of glass, which renders them fragile and – given their frequent use – eventually rather expensive. As a consequence, in daily lab routine, staining reagents are often kept in jars or beakers as cheap and available but unsatisfying equipment. This work describes the design and the manufacturing of shock-resistant and affordable dipping chambers from polypropylene (PP) by fused deposition modelling (“3D printing”). The design is implemented as a customizable script. Three chamber designs are presented: a chamber for typical HPTLC plates (20 × 10 cm) with a convenient closing/storing system which avoids awkward pouring and removal of staining reagents. Second, for synthesis purposes, a chamber for 10 × 10 cm plates with a spout to facilitate exchanging the staining reagent, as well as a very small chamber stabilized by a pedestal for reaction control on 2.5 × 7.5 cm plates, which limits the loss of costly staining reagent. Even though the chambers adsorbed some degraded staining reagent over time, no cross-contamination was observed. All customizable scripts (as CAD models) are made available through online repositories.