Chromatography - Separating a Mixture of Coloured Compound

For our science we did an experiment called ' Separating a Mixture of Coloured Compounds '. For this blog post, I am about to share you my experiment

Separating a Mixture Using Chromatography

Aim:  To separate the different pigments in inks or dyes using paper chromatography

Method:

1.  Cut a strip of filter paper that is long enough to reach the bottom of your beaker and able to wrap around your pencil.

2.  Rule a line in pencil approximately 2 cm from the bottom of your piece of paper.

3.  Fill your beaker with enough chromatography solution to fill your beaker to a depth of 1 cm.

4.  Place a dot of ink above the ruled line on your filter paper. You need to produce a concentrated dot of ink so repeated applications may be necessary.

5.  Suspend the strip of paper from the pencil. You may need to use adhesive tape to stop it from falling into the solution.

6.  Wait to see what happens. It is important that you do not move the beaker. If the solution comes in contact with the ink dot, the ink will run down into the solution, rather than move up the filter paper.

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Observations:  As the filter paper was put in the water, the paper started to absorb the water until it reached the coloured part of the water. Then the colour started to spread over the filter paper but it didn't spread quickly.

Discussion:  As the water goes up over the filter paper, the water started to spread over the space where the water is, the colour started to spread until it reached the very bottom where's the water came from. But if the colour reached the water, you did it wrong, but the colour will go into the water and will make the water colourful.

Results: