CHM110H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Paper Chromatography, Metal, Elution
Document Summary
In this lab, paper chromatography was used to determine the retention factor, rf, for five transition metal cations as well as to analyze an unknown mixture of these cations. In paper chromatography, the stationary phase is a uniform absorbent paper and the mobile phase is a suitable solvent. The stationary phase used in this lab was chromatography paper and the mobile phase was a 9:1 mixture of acetone:6mhcl1. The purpose of this lab was to identify the metal ions present in an unknown solution through the use of chromatography. Chromatography was used to separate the metal ions. After separation of the metal ions, the identity of each ion was confirmed separately using various tests1. Chromatography is both an inexpensive and rapid way to qualitatively identify unknown components in a mixture. In forensic studies, it can be used for dna and rna sequencing and in biochemistry it can be used to identify biomolecules such as amino acids2.
