Wild Chemistry Ride 8:


Chromatography 

Did you know?: Chromatography was originated by a Russian botanist in 1906 who named this technique chromatography because he separated components of plant pigments into bands of colour for his experiment!

And here's a fun fact: Scientists use chromatography columns to purify substances from multiple chemical compounds and that narrow glass tube can measure up to 50mm and can be up to 1 meter tall!

Well for the experiment we did, it was on paper chromatography, where we separated the ink dyes of a ZIG marker pen. I managed to separate the ink of my marker pen into 3 components: yellow dye, pink dye and blue dye. The results were mostly similar to my classmates', however not all markers use the same constituent elements/ compounds thus there might be some difference in the component results.

Apart from the concept on paper chromatography, I also learnt that the Rf value is the (distance travelled by spot) ÷  (distance travelled by component), thus the value would always be less than 1. Also, I discovered how to measure the distance of the spot, which is the center of the area covered by the dye if the "spot" covers a large area.

I've also learnt that factors affecting the Rf value are 1. The type of solvent used, 2. The temperature of the solvent and 3. The type of paper used.