Chromotography of Food Dye free essay sample

Today in lab I will separate mixtures of compounds into their constituent components using chromatography paper and an eluting solvent of salt water as well as rubbing alcohol. Materials and Methods: In this lab using the bag of FDC dyes, bag of MM’s, 2 packs of Kool-Aid , and a pack of Clover Valley store brand food coloring I am going to place a drop of each dye at the bottom of the chromatography paper. For the experiment with the rubbing alcohol I also placed a drop of each dye, but used a paper coffee filter. In order to get the dye color extracted from the MM’s and Kool-Aid I added a little additional water. After applying all of the dyes and allowing them to dry completely I placed the chromatography paper in an eluting solvent of salt water, that I previously prepared and placed the coffee filters in the rubbing alcohol, paying careful attention to make sure that the area that the dye was placed on the paper was above the level of the solvent. We will write a custom essay sample on Chromotography of Food Dye or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I left the chromatography paper in the solvent until all the solvent had been absorbed, approximately 2 to 3 minutes I removed them from the solvent, marked the solvent line and set them aside to dry. By comparing the color columns of the unknown dye sample and food items, to the color columns of the identified FDC Food Colors I was able to conclude the following- Unknown dye is a compound of Red 40 and Blue 1 Strawberry Kool-Aid consists of Red 40 Grape Kool-Aid is a compound of Red 40 and Blue 1 Red MM’s consist of Red 40 Blue MM’s consist of Blue 1 Yellow MM’s consist of Yellow 5 Green MM’s are a compound of Yellow 5 and Blue 1 This lab taught us an approach in how we can separate the properties of a compound with the use of different solvents in an attempt to distinguish their individual properties. Questions: A. Because the dye from pen would also run with the solvent. B. Because you will not be able to get an accurate equation of compound distance divided by solvent distance if the solvent has reached the end of the paper. C. To make sure that the dye spots don’t wash away in the solvent and are spread throughout the paper during the mobile phase. D. You have to mark the solvent line when you remove the paper from the petri dish because the solvent will continue to spread throughout the paper as it dries.