Separation of a Mixture Through Paper Chromatography

From the previous post, you can tell that there are many ways of separating a mixture...but today we focused on paper chromatography. =)
So what happens is that the food dye (solute) was spotted onto a piece of filter paper ("stationary phase"). It was then put into water (solvent). The solute was then moved by the solvent which acts as a moving carrier("moving phase"). After approx 20 min or so, the spot is spread out on the piece of filter paper in bands.  The different bands or spots on the filter paper are the separated substances. We then calculated the Rf values.


Calculations we used today:
Rf= d1/d2
Rf --> "Ratio of fronts" (ratio of distance traveled by the solute to the distance traveled by the solvent) Varies from 0-1.
d1= distance of solute
d2= distance of solvent

This is an example of how the lab would of looked like. It starts off with the spot (in this case, it's the ink spot). Over time, the water travels up the filter paper and spreads the solute and will show the different components making up the original spot. Then we would calculate the Rf values to determine the identities of those components. 

Chromatography can be used  in detection & measurement of pesticides in foods, separating alcohol, amino acids, and sugars in plants, and others. It can even separate complex mixtures such as drugs or plastics. Even if the sample size is small, it can analyze it and will still be accurate and precise.