Paper chromatography
Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:43 am
How do I know which dye has an Rf value of 0.7 by looking at a paper chromatogram with 4 spots obtained from 4 different dyes?
Hi Mikihana,
The retention factor (Rf) is the distance a component (or spot) moves relative to the solvent movement in a paper chromatography experiment.
If you have 4 spots on a chromatogram, you should measure the distance each spot moved. Divide each of these by the distance the solvent moved to get the Rf values for the spots.
A more detailed explanation is in the background section of the following project:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... -2#summary
I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.
A. Norman