Photoactivated zinc silicate in thin layer chromatography plates: a potential cause for error in liquid scintillation counting.

Thin layer chromatography plates impregnated with fluorescent indicator permit easy identification of many compounds by exposure to ultraviolet light. Exposure of zinc silicate treated plates to ultraviolet light (254 nm) for 30 seconds induced photoluminescence which persisted at significant levels for longer than 24 hours. This artifact significantly interfered with radioactivity quantitation in three commercially available liquid scintillation solutions. Chromatography plates impregnated with calcium silicate demonstrated insignificant ultraviolet light induced photoluminescence. The use of 14C rather than 3H-radiolabeled compounds, protecting the plate with aluminum foil when visualizing reference compounds with ultraviolet light, and heating the photoactivated plate to accelerate disappearance of the photoluminescence minimized the error in liquid scintillation counting.