Hi,

Silica gel is the stationary phase in this question (so the answer to 2 should be A).

The stationary silica gel in TLC is polar, and therefore a more polar compound spends more time in the silica gel, while a less polar compound like a fatty acid will travel further up the plate as it spends less time interacting with the polar silica gel.


Imagine someone on a road trip who takes a lot of pit stops, they don't travel as far or as fast as someone who drives the whole way and doesn't interact with anything at all. In this case, the more polar phospholipid takes more "pit stops" in the silica and the less polar fatty acid takes less, which results in the fatty acid travelling further up the plate.