Dye Chromatography Lab

In this experiment the objective is to separate dyes in washable markers to see how many different dyes are combined to create one color. The technique used to separate the dyes in this experiment is called chromatography. The materials used consisted of – 3 pieces of chromatography paper, a tall clear glass, water, table salt, 1 tsp. measuring spoon, an 8 oz. measuring cup, pencil, ruler, 6 washable markers, and paper towels. The markers used in this experiment have to be water soluble therefore I used washable markers made by Crayola. The colors I chose were brown, teal, red, orange, black, and green. The salt solution served as the mobile phase while the chromatography paper served as the stationary phase. The first marker color tested is teal. The teal marker appears to contain one dye which is the actual color of the marker, teal. Although there is only one dye present in this color, the experiment shows that it has more affinity for the salt solution which is the mobile phase in this experiment because it traveled far from the starting point on the chromatography paper. This mainly states that the teal dye has more of an attraction to the solvent (mobile phase) than the paper (stationary phase). Therefore it moves more rapidly up the paper.
The brown marker appears to have more than one dye present therefore it had to be mixed to create the color brown. The mixtures of dyes used to create this color are orange, pink, a pink hue, and a teal blue. The order from least to greatest in which they traveled from the starting point is orange, pink, pink hue, and teal blue. The orange dye has the greatest infinity for the paper or stationary phase because it traveled the least furthest from the starting point compared to the other dyes. The teal blue traveled the furthest from the starting point making it having the greatest affinity to the solvent or the mobile