Planning and Designing Lab

Problem Statement: On Valentine’s Day Ella received three different cards from secret
admirers. She suspected that all the cards were written with the same black ink. Plan and design
an experiment to confirm or deny Ella’s suspicions. Note that the black ink is insoluble in water.
Topic: Separation Techniques
Title: Separating the colors of the pen ink using Paper Chromatography.
Hypothesis: If the retention factor from the samples with the pen ink on them are the same then
it can be concluded that the same pen was used to write on the three Valentine’s Day cards.
Aim: To determine whether or not the same pen was used to write on the three Valentine’s Day
cards that were received.
Apparatus/ Materials: The three Valentine’s letters, chromatography paper, dropper, ethanol, 3
beakers, three petri dishes, a ruler, scissors and a pencil
Variables
Manipulated: The pen ink.
Responding: The retention factor and the chromatogram
Controlled: The chromatography paper, the amount of the solvent and solution used.
Procedure:
1. Collect a piece of paper from the card that has pen ink.
2. Place three different petri dishes that have ethanol in them labelled A, B and C.
3. Place a piece of all three cards into a different dish labelled A, B and C, and wait for the
ink on the paper to disappear.
4. Use the dropper to collect the solution from the dish.
5. Cut three exact pieces of chromatography paper.
6. Place the three drops of solution containing the pen ink onto the separate pieces of
chromatography paper.
7. Using a skewer, hang the soaked pieces of chromatography paper over three different
beakers.
8. Pour 10 ml of ethanol into the beakers.
9. Wait until the ethanol along with the ink have travelled up the chromatography paper.
10. Remove the papers from the ethanol.
11. Dry the paper.
12. Use a pencil to indicate of position of the components that are separated.
 13. Measure the distance of each spot from the original line and the distance of the solvent
front from the original line and record the information.
14. Observe the retention factor of the different samples of pen ink from the three different
cards.
15. Repeat this process three times.
Expected Results and Interpretation: It is expected that the solutions of the three pen inks will
have the same retention factor, seeing that they are expected to be the same pen ink. The process
of paper chromatography is done by separating mixtures by using absorbent paper and a solvent.
As the solvent, or the mobile phase, travels across the paper, the stationary phase. Due to the
difference in relative attraction parts of the mixture separate as they travel up the paper.
Components that are most attracted to the solvent will travel farthest up the paper and
components that are most attracted to the paper move slower remaining closer to the origin. The
different polarities of the paper as well as the solvent and mixture determine the attraction.
Data Collection:
TABLE SHOWING THE DATA COLLECTED FOR THE
Pen Ink Solvent Distance Spot Distance Retention Factor
1.
2.
3.

Precaution:
1. Turn off any fans present or conduct in an area with minimal wind so that when the paper
is drying it is not as affected by the environmental condition(s).
2. Avoid curling or interfering with the chromatography paper.
3. Cover the beaker containing the liquid to prevent it from evaporating.
Source of Error:
1. A source of error is that the temperature of the solution could change which would
change the solubility and inevitably the results.
2. The three pieces of paper may not have been removed at the same time due to human
reaction time.
3. Additional moisture from either the environment or a student’s hand could have altered
the results of the experiment.

Limitations:
1. The ink is does not only contain the pigment, therefore the ethanol would not be able to
extract all the materials from the ink such as the lubricants etc.
2. You may receive different amounts of ink you get from different samples of the card.
Assumptions:
1. The ink spots are the same size.
2. The ink used is a non-polar substance and the alcohol is a non-polar therefore like
substances will dissolve in each other.