to separate the different pigments in inks using chromatography.
Method:
1.Cut a piece of filter paper long enough to reach the bottom of the test tube.
2.Rule a line in a pencil 2 cm from the bottom of the paper
3.Fill the test tube with 1 cm of chromatography solution (water)
4.Place a dot of ink above the ruled lied on your filter paper.
5.Suspend the strip of paper and fold it above
6.Wait to see what happens. It is important that you do not disturb the test tube.
7.Repeat with 2 colours.
Results:
Discussion:
We first draw a dot or a pattern using different colours on the strip of filter paper and then we waited. We saw the ink blend with the other colours and some colours even turned into different colours like the orange turned into yellow and the dark green turned into blue. I think the reason why the blending happened its because the filter paper absorbed some of the water. This process is called chromatography .
Q: Why did it stop absorbing the water when it got to the end of the ink?
Great blog post Louise! What was actually happening was that the ink was separating into the colours that make it up. (Eg orange is made of yellow so that's why you saw yellow). And the filter paper would have absorbed water all the way to the top but we may not see that because we only put a small dot of ink on. Great question though and keep up the great work in science!!
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