Thin-layer chromatography on polyacrylonitrile: IV. Investigation of the separation mechanisms for tris-(alkylxanthato)cobalt(III) complexes

Abstract The chromatographic behaviour of six tris(alkylxanthato)cobalt(III) complexes on polyacrylonitrile sorbent thin layers was investigated using four non-aqueous and two aqueous solvent systems. It was assumed that their separation under normal-phase conditions was achieved by the mechanism of hydrogen-bond formation between highly electronegative sorbate oxygen and/or sulphur atoms and sorbent methyne group hydrogens. In contrast, it was assumed that under reversed-phase conditions the separation was based on non-specific hydrophobic interactions. Finally, the linear dependence between the number of carbon atoms in the ligands and the corresponding R M values of the investigated complexes of a homologous series was confirmed.