Question

When is it appropriate to use column chromatography over other types of purification?

Answer 1

In order to physically separate the two compounds in the mixture, you need to use column chromatography.Here, TLC can help you figure out which compound will come out of your column first - the one that moves up higher on the TLC plate (larger Rf value) will come out of the column first. It can be used to separate mixtures ranging from sub milligrams to multi-gram quantities, because you can vary the amount of support and the column diameter. In total, the advantages are inexpensive; flexible, suitable for preparation]

The biggest advantage of column chromatography is that it can usually be scaled to the project at hand. This is especially useful if one is trying to separate and purify a reaction mixture preparing an intermediate in a sequence of reactions/