Preparation and Use of Ferrocene
I was able to re-explore several techniques that I haven’t done in a while. One of then was Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). This technique involved spotting the TLC plate with a very small amount of materials being studied. Marking the baseline with a pencil and drawing a parallel line to the short side of the plate indicating the furthest distance the solvent can travel. I prepared the developing solvent using a 1:4 ratio of ethyl acetate and hexanes. I made three spots; spot A (representing ferrocene), spot B (representing the crude mixture), and spot C (which was the co spot of both). The plate is then placed in the developing chamber and the solvent migrates up the plate. The spots can be seen under an ultraviolet lamp.
I also re-explored how to perform column chromatographic separation. A small piece of cotton was first put inside of a pasteur pipet. It was traversed all the way to the bottom of the pipet with the help of a vacuum. Silica gel was then placed in a pasteur pipet. The gel was then filled with the eluent solvent and was not allowed to dry up. After the gel was lubricated enough, the mixture was poured in the pipet. Overtime, this separated the crude product into two components; ferrocene and mono acetylated ferrocene
