Question

Compare TLC and paper chromatography techniques.

Answer 1

Chromatography is a laboratory technique for the separation of a mixture. The mixture is dissolved in a fluid (gas, solvent, water, etc) called the mobile phase, which carries it through a system (a column, a capillary tube, a plate, or a sheet) on which is fixed a material called the stationary phase. The different constituents of the mixture have different affinities for the stationary phase.

Complete answer:

Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC)	Paper Chromatography
The principle of separation is adsorption.	The principle of separation is partition.
Less time consuming	More time consuming
Large amount of substance is required	Less amount of substance is required
In TLC, chromatographs are prepared by coating thin layers of silica gel or alumina on glass plates.	Here paper is generally used. Silica gel or alumina cannot be used because they cannot be made into sheets.
TLC plates can be heated in an oven for a long time.	Paper cannot be heated in an oven for a long time.
The different spots can be seen under the UV lamp in TLC.	Different spots cannot be seen under UV light.
The stationary phase of the thin layer chromatography is the glass plates coated with silica gel.	The stationary phase of paper chromatography is the water trapped in the cellulose filter paper.

Note:
Chromatography may be preparative or analytical. The purpose of preparative chromatography is to separate the components of a mixture for later use, and is thus a form of purification. Analytical chromatography is done normally with smaller amounts of material and is for establishing the presence or measuring the relative proportions of analytes in a mixture. The two are not mutually exclusive.