The solute (ink) dissolves in the solvent (water) and moves up the chromatography paper. The inks spread and separate depending on their relative solubility in the solvent. As we proved during lockdown, this can be an experiment carried out at home using kitchen roll and different felt tips! The class ended with some Skittle Chromatography!đŸŒˆ
A colourful Science Lesson
The Year 5 children used chromatography to separate the different inks found in felt tip pens.
Next lesson will be separating the colours of Skittles!Mr Shaw, Head of Science
Next lesson, Year 5 observed alcohol being distilled from red wine using a Liebig condenser and then they produced a solution of Copper Sulfate from which they extracted pure water using their own improvised condensing apparatus.
This is probably the hardest separation technique that pupils are asked to undertake since it involves the separation of two liquids based upon their different boiling points. It is very easy to get this wrong and contaminate the pure distillate. All the children produced pure water at the end of the experiment!
Such a beautiful blue colour.Sophie, on seeing the colour of the copper sulfate solution.