Preparing your own thin layer chromatography plates (and then using them)

Step 2 Grind the Silica Gel

I cannot stress enough how much of a pain it is to grind silica gel. It is glass, and the packets tend to contain it in bead form. I found it is relatively pain-free to break up the beads first by putting them between two pieces of stiff cloth and beating it with a hammer. Transfer this to the mortar, pick out the lint, and grind away.

For disclosure: I cheated after grinding for a while in a mortar and pestle. I took mine in to the lab I work at and used the ball grinder there. Its set up for grinding soil and mineral samples and did a fine job of pulverizing this. That said I was making head-way with the mortar and pestle, were I not impatient I imagine I could have gotten it done by hand. Also had I decided not to grind up all those packets and limited myself to smaller volumes it would have gone faster.