1. Thin layer chromatography or simply TLC is very basic common technique to separate components of a mixture according to their attraction to non mobile phase. It has a region called stationary phase which is static in which a coating of a silica gel (could be some thing else as well) is applied. The mixture of compounds which we want to separate will be dissolved in a particular solvent and it is allowed to be adsorbed (like dry paper touched in water). Individual components according to their attraction will travel through the pores in the mesh (silica gel/stationary phase), smaller molecules can move faster to long distance while bigger particles get trapped in the mesh easily.
2. TLC is chromatographic technique widely used to separate non-volatile substances according to their mobility in the adsorbant stationary phase. The components of the mixture under the influence of the mobile phase (driven by capillary action) travel over the surface of the stationary phase. During this movement, the compounds with higher affinity to stationary phase travel slowly while the others travel faster. TLC is particularly useful with samples containing heavy material. Larger and more polar molecules in the initial sample mixture may be isolated by their lack of mobility, nearer the origin, after smaller molecules are removed by appropriate solvents.
3. DNA or deoxiribonucleic acid is the genetic material of almost all the living organisms. It is made up of sugar and phosphate structure and 4 bases interlinked to form a strand. This can be single or stranded in different organisms. the composition of the bases in the DNA strand makes it as a genetic code, something like a paragraph of words. This code is converted into a functional products called protein by different cellular processes like transcription and translation. DNA generally occurs in double stranded paired by chemical bonding within the bases and it is packed and contained in the nucleus.
4. DNA is the genetic material of the organisms and is passed on to generations via cell division and DNA replication.The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C),thymine (T) , and guanine (G) . Humans containing approximately 3 million bases arranged in a particular sequence and 99.8% similar in population. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism. DNA bases pair up with each other, A with T and C with G, to form units called base pairs. Each base is also attached to a sugar molecule and a phosphate molecule. A nucleotide contains of a sugar phosphate and a base. Nucleotides are arranged in two long strands that form a spiral called a double helix. The structure of the double helix is somewhat like a ladder, with the base pairs forming the ladder’s rungs and the sugar and phosphate molecules forming the vertical sidepieces of the ladder.
1. Explain how thin layer chromatography works in layman’s terms (2 marks). 2. Explain how thin...