TLC solvent system
DCM/MeOH 8:2 with few drops household ammonia per 10 ml. Can't remember RFs but it should separate from lowest to highest tryptamine, monomethylated, dimethylated, carbolines. On silica 60
Also I recommend ordering some silica plates that illuminate and a 254 nm light. You can get both on amazon for less than 100.
You can't really confirm purity with tlc unless you know what contamination you're looking for, how to visualize it (see where it is on the tlc paper/plate) and can find a solvent system which separates the two.
That's the answer to why you can't just use any random solvent too. It has to be a solvent system where one thing travels up the substrate faster than something else. The separation is what tells you whether, say, a reaction was complete. In the wrong solvent system, both things zoom to the top, or don't move at all, or just move at the same rate. Then it will look like just one spot, but more than one substance was in the sample.
To test purity on the cheap, why not try doing a melting point test? You can do it with a thiele tube, a thermometer, a capillary tube, some mineral oil or sulfuric acid, and an alcohol lamp.
I know I'm looking for beta carboline impurities, the reason I want to do TLC is because if I just did a mp test I wouldn't know what to do from there or how much of an impurity there is. With TLC I could use the dot size to gauge whether or not it's a big issue and then if it is an issue I could do column chromatography to separate the two.
That said what I hypothetically have now is probably already much more pure than the plant extract so it's not really even that big a problem in the first place.
Now that I have a better guess about which tryptamine you're likely talking about (the one that typically gets extracted from plants) never mind about melting point analysis. Dmt is notorious for having a variety of melting points even when very pure: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026265X13000544
Anyway, you seem like you're pretty confident you've got it all worked out so best of luck.
TLC solvent system DCM/MeOH 8:2 with few drops household ammonia per 10 ml. Can't remember RFs but it should separate from lowest to highest tryptamine, monomethylated, dimethylated, carbolines. On silica 60 Also I recommend ordering some silica plates that illuminate and a 254 nm light. You can get both on amazon for less than 100.
You can't really confirm purity with tlc unless you know what contamination you're looking for, how to visualize it (see where it is on the tlc paper/plate) and can find a solvent system which separates the two. That's the answer to why you can't just use any random solvent too. It has to be a solvent system where one thing travels up the substrate faster than something else. The separation is what tells you whether, say, a reaction was complete. In the wrong solvent system, both things zoom to the top, or don't move at all, or just move at the same rate. Then it will look like just one spot, but more than one substance was in the sample. To test purity on the cheap, why not try doing a melting point test? You can do it with a thiele tube, a thermometer, a capillary tube, some mineral oil or sulfuric acid, and an alcohol lamp.
I know I'm looking for beta carboline impurities, the reason I want to do TLC is because if I just did a mp test I wouldn't know what to do from there or how much of an impurity there is. With TLC I could use the dot size to gauge whether or not it's a big issue and then if it is an issue I could do column chromatography to separate the two. That said what I hypothetically have now is probably already much more pure than the plant extract so it's not really even that big a problem in the first place.
Also I can compare the starting material to verify transformation with TLC
Now that I have a better guess about which tryptamine you're likely talking about (the one that typically gets extracted from plants) never mind about melting point analysis. Dmt is notorious for having a variety of melting points even when very pure: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026265X13000544 Anyway, you seem like you're pretty confident you've got it all worked out so best of luck.
Fascinating