Name ______Ware Stuckey M&M Laboratory

Day #1
1. Place 6-8 M&M candies in a test-tube. Make sure they are of the same color and not
primary colors. They should have no cracks in the candy shell where the chocolate could
come out of.
2. Fill the test-tube ¾ of the way with distilled water.
3. After the coloring lifts from the candies and you only see the white shell, pour the
colored liquid into a clean test-tube. Throw away the candies.
4. Add a 15 cm piece of undyed woolen yarn to the liquid test-tube and add 5 drops of
concentrated acetic acid. The acid enables the yarn to absorb the dye.
5. Heat the test-tube for 5 minutes in boiling water. The liquid will turn pale and the yarn
will become vibrant with color.
6. Dispose of the liquid down the sink. Rinse the yarn with tap water and put it in a clean
test-tube.
7. Add 5ml of 1% ammonia water solution to the dye and boil it for 5 minutes. The base
will pull the purified dye from the yarn.
8. Set up a beaker with boiling water and a watch glass on top of it. Pour the ammonia
water dye solution from the test-tube onto the watch glass. Evaporate the liquid away. It
will appear like a stained-glass window. This will be used for day #2.
9. Rinse the yarn and keep it as a product from your laboratory.

Day #2
1. Obtain a large beaker and a rectangular piece of chromatography paper.
2. Draw a PENCIL line 1 cm from the bottom of the paper.
3. Place 2 drops of distilled water on the watch glass and use a capillary tube to mix the dye
and water.
4. Put drops of the dye on the pencil line of the chromatography paper every few
centimeters apart.
5. Make the paper go in a circle with the dye facing down. Staple it on top and bottom.
6. Place the paper in a beaker with 1% Sodium Chloride solution. The liquid must be below
the dye. Do not move it until the chromatography is done.
7. Once the dyes have moved up the paper and separated, remove the chromatography from
the beaker to dry and cut into strips.
Staple a piece of chromatography paper and yarn with the color of the dye next to it on the top of
this paper for each color of M&M you performed.

Questions
1. Based on your results are brown and green made from a single dye? Why or why not?
No, It is made from multiple colors/chemicals
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. How does pH affect absorption and release of dye and the wool?
The acid made the wool soak up the dye, while the base extracted
it.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__

3. Why was a pencil line used on the chromatography paper instead of an ink line?
The ink would have mixed with our
dye_____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
___

4. What would happen if spots of commercial food coloring were applied directly to the
chromatographic paper?
We would get similar results because they are essentially the same
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________