1. Science@CSCB Introduction to Chromatography

2. What is Chromatography? Derived from the Greek word Chroma meaning colour, chromatography provides a way to identify unknown compounds and separate mixtures

3. Applications of Chromatography Forensics Research Pharmaceutical industry

4. Types of Chromatography… Paper HPLCGas Thin layer Column

5. Your mission should you choose to accept is to……..  Analyse coloured markers  Test whether they contain E133 (blue), E122 (pink), E124 (red) or E110 (yellow)

6. Thin Layer Chromatography  Sample – marker  Standard – food dyes  Stationary phase – chromatography paper  Mobile phase - water

7. Structures of E numbers….. E110 yellow E122 pink E124 red E133 blue

8. So what will happen?  Each dye will travel up the paper at different speeds  The speed depends on the solubility of the dye in water and its interaction with the paper  The dyes are all different molecules with different characteristics

9. Calculation of results

10. Analysis You must now calculate an Rf value for each spot. Rf = Distance from the start to the middle of a spot Distance from start to finish point of the water

11. Conclusions – writing up  One of the key elements of all scientific experiments is to write up your results  At the end of this experiment we would like each person to conclude from the Rf values as to which E numbers are contained in the markers