Introduction
Chemical separation is an important process in the field of chemistry. It entails different methods and approaches that deal with separation of materials that have different properties. Paper chromatography is one of the useful and quick methods of separation of pigments and other substances. In this paper, we are going to illustrate the separation of the metal cations in the aqueous mixtures that contain Fe3+, Cu2+, and Ni2+ on the same paper chromatogram.
Methods
The steps involved in this experiment include separation of the 19ml of Acetone and the 6ml 8M HCl. Then denote the unknown solution with the letter A and the known solution with the paper chromatography. Run the chromatogram in the 1L beaker.
Results and Discussion
The identification of the unknown solution A was through the comparison of the color and the retention factor of a spot produced in the known cations and the sport produced with the unknown mixture. Therefore, the retention factor of the cation Fe3+ was obtained from the calculation.
Retention= distance spot run/ distance of the solvent run
=24.4/25
=0.98
The retention factor of the other cations is shown in the table
| Soln Used | Colour of the spot | Retention factor |
| Fe3+ | Rust | 0.98 |
| Ni2+ | Pick | 0.18 |
| Cu2+ | Blue Green | 0.48 |
| Unknown A | Rust
Blue Green |
0.96
0.50 |
In the comparison of the results, the unknown solution contains Fe3+ and Cu2+
Conclusion
From the experiment results, we can conclude that the identified metal cation of the unknown solution A is correct. Thus, the experiment illustrates the importance of the low-resolution technique that has been used to identify the chemical elements in the mixture.
