Simply scanning a visibly stained TLC plate into a computer substitutes for much more expensive plate readers. Iodine-stained cholesterol and cholesteryl esters are shown to yield nonlinear calibration curves, but the overall sensitivity is excellent for such a simple method.
Detection limits are submicrogram for heavily stained spots.
Spot intensity, and therefore detection limit, depends strongly on the amount of time the spot is exposed to iodine. Reproducibility is excellent for spots deposited by aspiration from a glass micropipet. Using a Flatbed Scanner J. Chem. Quantitative Analysis March 2000 Vol. All rights reserved.