Question

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.

(i) What would you expect to see, if the ink contains three different coloured components?

(ii) Name the technique used by the child.

(iii) Suggest one more application of this technique.

Answer 1

(i) The components of the ink will travel with water and we would see three bands on the filter paper at various lengths.

(ii) The technique is called chromatography.
(iii) Separation of pigments present in chlorophyll.