Title: paper chromatography

Aim; to separate the colours present in three different inks by paper

chromatography 24

Theory: chromatography is used to separate mixtures into their components, with

paper chromatography; the stationary phase is very uniform absorbent paper while
the mobile phase is a suitable solvent. Chromatography uses the flow of the solvent
to cause the components of a mixture to migrate at different rates upwards. The
distance travelled relative to the solvent is called the R fvalue. For each compound it can
be worked out using the formula:

Materials:
Bounty tissue
Water
Black water marker
Pencil
Beaker
Ruler
Scissor

Method
1) The beaker was filled with 20cm3 of water then A narrow strip of bounty
tissues was cut off, 3cm in width and 12 cm in length
2) A line was drawn 2 cm from the base line of the narrow strip
3) In the center of the drawn line a dot was place with the use of the black
marker
4) The narrow strip of tissue was then placed, having just the tip being
submerged in the water, it was made sure that the dot was not under the
water mark.
5) The strip was left unit all the colours were separated
 6) After the colours were separated the distance in which the solvent traveled
was measured, the distance at which each colour travelled from its main
point was measured
7) The data collected was recorded and tabulated
8) The retention factor of each colour was then calculated
9) Steps 1-8 was repeated 3 more times to fine the average retention factor of
each coolour separated
Observation table

Initial
colour
of ink
Colour Distance each
Distance solvent
components colour Rf value
travelled(mm)
separated travelled(mm)

Grape 68

Black Green 92 107

Blue 102

Pink 24

Red Orange 48 64

Yellow 52

Yellow 28
Green 82
Blue 78
Calculations
GREEN
Yellow-28mm/82mm=0.34
Blue-78/82=0.95

BLACK
Grape-68/107=0.64
Green-92/107=0.86
Blue-102/107=0.95

RED
pink-22/64
orange-48/64=0.75
yellow-52/640=0.81

Discussion
Paper chromatography was used to separate the colour components from 3 different
marker inks which were green, black and red inks. Like all chromatography
experiments, this on had a stationary and mobile phase, the mobile phase flowed
through the stationary phase and carried the components of the ink which traveled
at different rates. In this experiment the rubbing alcohol was used as the suitable
liquid solvent and was the mobile phase while the stationary phase was a very
absorbent paper towel. In the separation of the inks, there was three separate
stationary phases (absorbent paper towels which had a line drawn 2cm away from
the base of the paper this is called the base line, for each of the paper one dot was
place in the center off the base line with one of the different markers, once that was
completed they were submerged in a beaker shallowly filled with rubbing alcohol, it
was made sure that the base line was not covered by the solution. As the solvent
travelled slowly up the paper, the different component of the inks travelled at
different rates and separated in different colours that seem to appear since they
were not seen a part of the original colour. As the solvent stop travelling upwards
the different colours travelled at different lengths some were closer to the base line
while others travelled almost as far as the solvent, the distance travelled relative to
the solvent was calculated this was the Rf value, this was calculated the by using
the formula

Sources of error
Inaccurate measurement of the distance at which the components of the ink
travelled
Precaution
Ensure that the base line with the ink dot is not submerged in the solvent
Conclusion