Materials

• Small Erwin-Meyer flask
• Ruler
• Filter paper
• Petroleum ether
• Acetone
• Pencil
• Leaf extract
• Para film
• Scissors
• Capillary tube

Procedure

1. Draw a line 1 cm from the bottom of the filter paper with a pencil.
2. Draw some leaf extract into a capillary tube by putting the capillary tube into the leaf extract.
3. Put the capillary tube, the bottom end with the leaf extract, on the center of the pencil line.
4. Hold until a little bit of leaf extract comes out.
5. Dry filter paper completely.
6. Repeat previous three steps 14 more times.
7. Use scissors to poke a hole in the top of the Para film.
8. Place bottom end of filter paper into petroleum ether and acetone mixture.
9. Wait until the petroleum ether and acetone mixture stop moving up the paper.
10. Remove filter paper from Para film.
11. Pour petroleum ether and acetone mixture back into bottle.
12. Quickly re-cap the bottle.
13. Rinse the Erwin-Meyer flask.
14. Place the Erwin-Meyer flask in the drying rack.
15. Drop capillary tube into the “needs bleaching” container.
16. Color the different areas of your new chromatogram where the different colors start and stop.
17. Write a lab report.

Results

Discussion

Paper Chromatography is defined as “A type of chromatography in which the stationary phase is a sheet of special-grade filter paper. … [It is] not a very sensitive method, but historically important as one of the first methods available for separating natural compounds .”

Conclusion

I think this lab went well for me except for thinking that my paper was wet when it was dry and making a few minor errors along the way. I put the capillary tube on wet leaf extract more than once and didnt think my paper was dry fast enough. Other than that, I believe this was a good lab.