Hello everyone, today I'm going to show you how to properly prepare and develop a TLC plate. This is a TLC plate. Handle it gently and only on the edges as you would a CD. They are very delicate. To prepare your TLC plate, draw a line approximately 1 centimeter from the bottom of the plate with pencil. Then mark 4 evenly spaced dots along the line and label them. Next, you will be spotting the plate. This is a spotting tube. It's like a capillary tube, but open on both sides. To use it, simply dip the end into your solution. You should see some of the solution drawn up into the spotting tube, like so. Then simply touch the end of the spotting tube to your plate. You should see some of the sample. Go onto the plate. In order to use this tube on your next solution, simply break it off above where the solution was drawn up. Then again, take your second solution and simply dip your spotting tube into the solution and then gently touch it to the plate. Repeat this with your other solutions until you have spotted each of the dots that you drew on your TLC plate. When the spots on the plate are dry, you can place your plate in the developing solution. Make sure that your spots are still above the solution, because if they are not, they will simply be washed away. Once in the solution, the solvent front will move slowly up the plate. Once your solvent front is within one centimeter of the top of the plate, remove it from the solution and immediately trace the solvent front with a pencil. Now you know how to properly prepare and develop a TLC plate. Good luck and have fun!