PHYSICS 44A BIOPHYSICS LABORATORY

Instructor: Christine Adelle Rico-Yuson

Name of Student: Semblante, Hannah Kristea P.

Section: BSBIO 3Bx

Date Performed: February 15, 2022

ACTIVITY 1: CHROMATOGRAPHY

Total points = 50

Chromatography is one of the simplest techniques to look at complex mixtures by separating

them into their components. For example, criminal investigators use this technology to identify
substances such as drugs, blood, ink, and other fluids.

Here’s how chromatography works:

Different inks have different properties, such as

how much they can be dissolved in solvents.
When you place chromatography paper into the
solvent, the solvent begins to move up the
paper. As the solvent rises, it dissolves the ink
on the paper and separates the ink into its
components. The farther the ink travels, the
more it is attracted to the solvent.
A good understanding of solutions and
mixtures and their components is essential for
environmental engineers. Most experiments
and data gathering done for the purpose of
improving groundwater quality involve the
preparation of solutions to monitor and test
different conditions for contaminated water.

In this activity, you will perform a simple chromatography experiment using your own
household items. You will have the freedom to decide on the materials that you will use.

Laboratory Activity #1 1
Procedure

1. Take the strips of chromatography paper or paper towel and fold both pieces about an
inch from the top.
2. Using the black pen, draw a horizontal line near the other end of the chromatography
paper. Make the line about as high off the bottom as the length of your thumb.
3. Use a pencil to suspend the paper in each beaker/cup. Make sure the strip does not
touch the sides of the beaker/cup.
4. Carefully add water to one beaker/cup and alcohol to the other. Add just enough of
each liquid so that it touches the bottom of the hanging strip.
5. Watch what happens!! Once you see the ink separation is complete, get new strips
and repeat using ink from a colored pen marker.

Questions

1. (5 points) Write down the Objective/s for your activity.

• Determine the colors that will show
• Determine which of the two has the most attracted to the solvent.

2. (5 points) List down all the materials you used in the activity.
• Two empty containers
• Alcohol
• Distilled water
• Tissue
• Barbeque stick
• Pen (Black&Red)

3. (5 points) What were the two solvents that you used?

Distilled water and Alcohol.

Laboratory Activity #1 2
4. (5 points) The black ink is more attracted to which solvent? How do you know?
The black ink were more attracted on the alcohol solvent, for a reason that it arises
more than the other solvent and show a lot of color.

5. (5 points) What colors are present in black ink?

• Black
• Orange
• Pink
• Violet
• Blue
• Light green

6. (5 points) What do these colors represent?

The colors represents combination of the light reflected by a mixture of different-
color molecules.

7. (5 points) How might the ability to separate solutions into their components be
important to environmental engineers looking into water quality issues?

Environmental engineers must understand all about solutions and their

components because most experiments and data collection for the aim of
improving groundwater quality include the development of solutions to monitor
and analyze polluted water, environmental engineers must grasp everything there
is to know about solutions, combinations, and their components. We can only
design water remediation procedures if we can separate the normally invisible
water pollutant compounds from the water.

Laboratory Activity #1 3
(10 points) Data Gathering: Show pictures of your experiments.

ALCOHOL SOLVENT
WATER SOLVENT

ALCOHOL WATER

Laboratory Activity #1 4
(5 points) Conclusion: Write a conclusion of your experiment.

In conclusion, the most attracted to solvent is the one with the black ink in the
container with an alcohol. There are six colors in result of the experiment which
are the black, orange, pink, light green, violet, and blue. Compared to the other
one, the one with the water solvent it only had light green, blue and black in it. On
the other hand, the red ink. The most attracted to the solvent is the one with the
water solvent, compare to the alcohol solvent the ink disappeared on the starting
line of the tissue paper.

Laboratory Activity #1 5