Paper Chromatography

Chemistry 102 Section 14 Station 15 Zach White Kaushal Purohit 10/08/09

Purpose: The purpose of this lab was to use a technique of separation, called chromatography, to understand the process and experimentally determine the different dyes in a compound of ink. Chromatography is a way of separation that depends on how strongly compounds in a mixture are attracted to its stationary phase versus its solubility. The purpose of part one of the lab is to experiment and understand the use of chromatography using three different mobile phases. In part two, the purpose is to discover which mobile phase gave us the best results of separation in the ink compounds. In part three, the purpose of the experiment was to identify an unknown pen that the instructor wrote on a piece of paper with. The purpose of part four was to take this data, calculate it and compare it to the Rf values of the pens used in the experiment. Our goal of this lab is that my calculations based of my data from the lab, will line up with the calculations given in the table. Procedure: Part one: The first step in the lab was to cut four pieces of chromatography paper at least 10 cm long. Then, after folding it in half length-wise, a line was drawn 1 cm from the bottom going across the width of each piece. After, a dot from each of two given pens was made on the drawn line and on either side of the fold. This piece of paper was then re-folded so that it would stand upright in a 100mL beaker. Distilled water was poured into the bottom of the beaker carefully so that it would not touch the two dots, yet the entire bottom width of the paper was submerged. The mobile phase then began to move upwards on the paper. When the mobile phase was 1 cm from the top, the paper was removed from the distilled water and placed on a paper towel to dry. Before the paper was completely dried, circles were made around the darkest spots of the dye before they were to fade upon drying. After the paper was dried, the distance from the bottom pencil line to the solvent front was measured and recorded. After, the distance between the pencil line and the center of the darkest spots of dye was measured and recorded. Once these steps were done, the same procedures were followed using a 5% NaCl solution and then a 5% Isopropopyl solution in replacement of the distilled water. Part two: In part two, the three chromatographs were carefully measured to see which gave the greatest degree of separation in the different colors of the dye. The mobile phase that best separated the different colors was observed and recorded. Part three: In part three, the TA made a dot with an unknown pen corresponding with one of our markers on the fourth strip of chromatography paper. We then did the same procedure as in part one but with the 5% NaCl solution. Once again the inks were allowed to separate and the distances were observed and recorded. This chromatograph was then compared to the other chromatographs that were exposed to the NaCl solution. The pen that was hypothesized to be the match was recorded into the lab notebook

Part four: using only the chromatogram of the pens in the NaCl solution from part one, the data and Rf values were compared to those in table 1 of the lab instruction manual. These comparisons gave the pen id which was later recorded. Data: Part 1: Mobile Phase Pen ID Distance to Solvent front (cm) 11 cm 11 cm 10.8 cm 10.8 cm 8.7 cm 8.7 cm Distance to center spot (cm) Blue dot Violet dot 9.5 cm 10 cm 9.8 cm 10 cm 8.6 cm 8 cm 9 cm 8 cm 6.02 cm 1 cm 6.4 cm 7 cm

Distilled Water NaCl Solution Isopropyl Solution Part II:

P K P K P K

Best Mobile Phase: NaCl has greatest separation between dyes in the ink compound Mobile Phase Pen ID Distance to Solvent Front (cm) 10.8 cm 10.8 cm Distance to Center Spot Violet Dot Blue Dot 6.02 cm 1 cm 9.8 cm 10 cm

NaCl Solution

P K

Part III: Mobile Phase Pen ID Distance to Solvent front (cm) 7.4 cm Distance to center spot (cm) Blue dot Violet dot 7 cm 1 cm

NaCl Part IV: Pen Id Pen P Pen K

Pen Listing in Table 11 10

Results: Part one: Mobile Phase Distilled Water 5% NaCl Pen Id P P P P 5% Isopropyl P P Spot Id 1 2 1 2 1 2 Rf .818 .863 0.557 .907 .736 .989 Color Violet/purple Blue Violet/purple Blue Violet/Purple Blue

Mobile Phase

Pen Id

Spot ID

Rf

Color

Distilled Water 5% NaCl 5% Isopropyl

K K K K K K

1 2 1 2 1 2

.727 .909 .092 .926 .804 .919

Violet/red Blue Violet/red Blue Violet/red Blue

Part II: Mobile Phase used in part three: NaCl

Part III: Pen Id K K Spot Id 1 2 Rf .135 .945 Color Violet/Red Blue

Part IV Pen P= Pen ID #11 Spot Id Spot Color Rf from Table 1 .65 Exp. Rf Exp. Error Percent Error 15.4 %

Violet/ Purple

.557

+.1

Blue

.875

.907

-.032

3.7 %

Spot Id

Spot Color

Rf from Table 1 .085 .875

Exp. Rf

Exp. Error

Percent Error 8.2 % 5.8 %

1 2

Violet/red Blue

.092 .907

-.051 -.007

Discussion Questions: 1) The Pen ID code used to write my unknown Dot was pen ID # 10. I came to this conclusion based on the Rf values that matched up to the color of my unknown. For my experimental yields, I came up with an Rf value of .135 for Violet/Red and .945 for Blue. These values were in the span of .80-.95 for blue and .06-.11 for red. 2) Pen P: my percent error for my blue dot came to be 3.7 % and 15.4 % for Violet/Purple. I am confident in the accuracy of the blue dot but not so much for the Violet given its high percent error. For me to have full confidence in my results, I would need to have less than a 5 % error. Pen K: the percent error for my Blue dot was 5.8 % and 8.2 % for my violet/red dot. Although I am not fully confident in these results, I can be assured

that they are fairly accurate. The error in this experiment is greatly higher than in the last lab because there is a much greater span of possible error. While in the other lab most errors were based on miss-measuring, in this lab there were many more possibilities for error. For example, when making the dot, if the ink was spread across the paper to much, it would throw off the results. As well as if the mobile phase were to touch above the pencil line when inserting the paper, the whole lab results would be inaccurate. 3) If the results were consistently higher or lower than the actual Rf values, this would be a result of systematic error. One possibility for this error could have derived from the mobile phase. If the concentration of NaCl were higher or lower than exactly 5 % you would have a consistent error that would result in a higher or lower Rf value. To fix this, you would need to test the solution and make sure that the concentration of NaCl is actually 5 %. Another possibility for systematic error could have been the dot sized placed upon the piece of paper. If one consistently placed a larger dot, than the dye would travel further. To fix this, a more accurate measurement on the size of the dot would need to take place. 4) A small round dot would yield a more precise Rf Value. With a small, bold dot, it is much easier to tell where the darkest spot is rather than try to pick out a dark spot in a long streak. The round dot will allow for a more accurate measurement, resulting in a more precise Rf value. Also, with a streak, the spot of greatest darkness could be debatable as opposed to if it was a small dot, there would be a much smaller area. 5) One advantage of using paper chromatography to separate chemical compounds is the time. It only takes a few minutes to completely separate the dyes in the ink. Another advantage of paper chromatography is its accessibility. It is much easier to buy a role of this paper rather than purchase large, expensive equipment.

Conclusion: In this lab there were many possibilities for error. Possibilities for systematic errors could be that there wasnt an exact concentration of 5% NaCl in the solution. If this were to be the case, the results would be inaccurate. Random errors include an inaccurate measuring of the distance to the most concentrated area of dye, or even an inaccurate depiction of what is the darkest spot of the dye. If the mobile phase were to touch the dye itself, the experiment would be invalid because the dye would just come off into the solution at the bottom of the beaker. Most of my errors were around 5%. Because of this, I am fairly accurate in these results. However, there was one percent error that was much further inaccurate. For my spot Id #1 in pen P, my error was about 15%. This could be due to an inaccurate measure of distance or possibly that the NaCl solution had touched my dye before allowing the Mobil Phase to begin. Based on my calculations and determination of the unknown pen ID, I do believe that this lab was successful and I am confident in my results.