Bezawit Wube

Experiment 4
Summer session

Lab
Report
General
Chemistry II
- 182

Abstract:
Students will have the opportunity to learn how mixtures of compounds can be separated and
determine what food dyes are found in certain foods by using paper chromatography. They will
learn how solubility is affected by polarity.

Purpose:

To learn how mixtures of compounds can be separated

To learn what food dyes are found in certain foods
In this exercise we will separate food dyes from a variety of sources. The separation is
based on polarity. Most dyes are all polar and will be soluble in water

Materials used:
Distilled water
1 Salt
1 Ruler
1 Scissors
1 Stapler
1 Pencil
1 Tape
16 Toothpicks
1 Kool-Aid drink mix: strawberry
1 Kool-Aid drink mix: grape
1 Set of food colorings usually
boxed in small
vials of red, yellow, green, & blue
1 Small bag of M&M candy

1 Well-Plate-24
Experiment Bag Chromatography
of Food Dyes 1 FDC Blue Dye #-1 0.5 mL in Vial
1 FDC Blue Dye #-2 - 0.5 mL in Vial
1 FDC Red Dye #-3 - 0.5 mL in Vial
1 FDC Red Dye #-40 - 0.5 mL in
Vial
1 FDC Yellow Dye #-5 - 0.5 mL in
Vial
1 FDC Yellow Dye #-6 - 0.5 mL in
Vial
1 Unknown - 0.5 mL in Vial
Special Papers Bag Special Papers
Bag-CK-2 3 Filter Paper Chrom 14x7

Beaker, 50 mL, plastic

1 Petri dish, 60 mm

cm

Procedure:
1. Using the 50-mL beaker, dissolve a pinch of salt into 50 mL of warm (room temperature)
distilled water. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.
2. . Obtain two sheets of Filter Paper Sheets Chromatography 14 x 7cm from your LabPaq

3. . On Sheet 1, from left to right, lightly label in pencil each section between the cross lines
with the abbreviation for the six FD&C food colors from your experiment bag that will be
tested, i.e., B1, B2, R3, R40, Y5, and Y6
4. Also on Sheet 1, but now right to left, place the labels KG and KS to represent the KoolAid Grape and Kool-AidStrawberry drink mixes to be tested
5. On Sheet 2 from left to right, lightly label in pencil each section between the cross lines
6.

with the abbreviation for the grocery store food colorings that will be tested, i.e., R, Y, G,B a
Also on Sheet 2, but now from right to left, place the label UK for
unknown and then M plus A letter for the color of four different candies from your

bag of M&Ms, i.e., MR, MY, MB, etc.

7. Set Sheet 2 aside and perform the following for Sheet 1. After you have
completed the experiment for Sheet 1, repeat for Sheet 2.
8. For each dye on the sheet to be tested
9. Now form the paper into a cylinder with the edges touching, but NOT
overlapped, and staple at the top and bottom.
10. The salt water (~0.1% NaCl) you previously prepared will be your
eluting solvent and a petri dish will be your elution chamber. Pour salt
water into the clean and empty petri dish to depth of about 1/2 cm.
11. Set your cylinder next to the petri dish with the spots at the bottom
and look to make sure the solvent level is below the line of dye spots
12. Carefully drop the dye cylinder into the eluting chamber, making sure
not to touch the petri dish sides
13. When complete remove the cylinder from the chamber and
immediately mark the top of each solvent-front with a pencil. Allow the
paper to dry for several minutes
14. Then measure to the nearest millimeter and record the heights of the
dye and solvent-front in each column:
15. Calculate and record the Rf value for each spot: Rf = dye
distance/solvent distance
16. Repeat Steps 8 through 15 for the items listed on Sheet 2.

17.

17. By comparing the color columns of the unknown sample and the

food items with those of the FD&C food dyes it is possible to determine
which dyes are used in the Kool-Aid, in the grocery food colorings, and
in the M&Ms.
Observations:

Substance

Data table Sheet1:FD&C Food Colors

Blue Blue Red3
Red40
Yellow5 Yellow6
1

Splvent

Distance(mm)
Rf

Substance
Distance(mm)
Distance(mm)
Rf

Substance

Data Table Sheet1:Drink Mixes

Kool-Aid Grape
Kool-Aid strawberry

Data Table Sheet2:candy colors

M&M Green
M&M
M&M Blue

Solvent

M&M Red

Solvent

Yellow
Distance(mm)
Rf

Questions:
A. Why cant a pen be used to draw the baseline on the chromatography
paper?

B. Why it is important to stop the chromatograph before the solvent

reaches the top of paper?


C. Why is it important to keep the dye spots above the solvent level?

D. Why is it important to mark the solvent level on the chromatography

paper when you remove it from the petri dish?