Candy Chromatography Lab


The purpose of this lab was have students separate mixtures by using chromatography paper and 0.1% NaCl developing solution.  Spots of the sample were put on the paper, which was then placed in the solution.  As the water crept up the paper, the different colors in the mixture were separated.  First students tried different marker colors to see what colors they were made up of.  Then M & M candies were separated by color and placed in water to dissolve the shell coloring.  A drop of the dye color was added to the paper with a toothpick and the placed in the developing solution to see what colors composed the dye mixtures.