A child wanted to separate the mixture of dyes constituting a sample of ink. He marked a line by the ink on the filter paper and placed the filter paper in a glass containing water as shown in Fig. 2.3. The filter paper was removed when the water moved near the top of the filter paper.
(a) What would you expect to see, if the ink contains three different coloured components?
(b) Name the technique used by the child.
(c) Suggest one more application of this technique.
(a) Three different coloured bands are obtained on the strip at different heights if the ink contains three different coloured components.
Chromatography is a method to separate components of the mixture.
(b) Chromatography method (paper chromatography) is used by the child.
(c) Chromatography is used to separate the pigments present in chlorophyll. It is also used to separate drugs from the blood.