Eva Larabee

Tessa Utter
Mikayla Kruse-Meek

Chromatography

Objectives
Students will understand what chromatography is, how it works, and how it is used to help solve
mysteries.

Anticipatory Set
During the Family Fun night, the mascots signed autographs using black ink pens. The
competition committee did not supply the pens, so each mascot brought their own. The
mysterious note taped to Dewey Duhawk’s locker was also written in black ink. The CSI
investigators think that by using a scientific process of paper chromatography they might be able
to determine which mascot may have written the threatening note giving them evidence that may
point to the perpetrator.

Each mascot’s pens were confiscated and labeled for testing. Follow the procedure for
conducting the scientific test and then list your conclusion.

Procedures
1. Today we are going to use chromatography to give us some clues to solve the mystery.
2. Ask students what they know about Chromatography. Have they heard the word before?
Explain that we will be learning a little more about it.
3. Get in three groups. Read as individuals first then share as individual groups and finish
with whole class. (See attached or below)
a. Group One: Read What it is
b. Group Two: Read How it works
c. Group Three: Read What it is used for
4. Explain the experiment
a. Read original letter
b. Pass out directions
c. As you read the directions model the experiment.
d. Split groups into smaller groups of 3
e. Then have one person from each group come up and grab a box with the
materials.
f. Have more than one test example around the room for students to compare results
with.

Steps for Conducting a Paper Chromatography

Eva Larabee
Tessa Utter
Mikayla Kruse-Meek

Step 1: Get one filter paper test strip for each suspect. Make sure to label each test strip so you
won’t get suspects confused. Make a chromatogram using a pen from each suspect. To do so,
simply draw a line with the pen you are testing about an inch from the bottom of the strip, all the
way across.

Step 2: Place the test strips in a cup with a small amount of water (1/4 inch) in the
bottom of the cup.
(Make sure that the water level is below the test mark. You want the water to get
absorbed through the test mark - do not submerge the mark).

Step 3: Let the water absorb almost to the top of the test strip.

Step 4: Place the labeled test strips on a paper towel.

Step 5: Compare your results with the chromatography results the crime lab made of the note
taped to Dewey’s locker.

Step 6: Gather materials into box, put water in cup, and ask a Loras teacher to take materials
away from pod.

Step 7: Record your findings in your CSI notebook. (Make sure to define what implicated
means)

Step 8: How does this compare with your findings from the other experiments?

Closure
Whole Group Discussion
1. What did you learn?
2. What did your results show?
3. Can you explain this?
4. How does this compare with your findings from the other experiments?

Next time you work with Loras students you will be discussing why footprints are important and
how they fit into the mystery.

Assessment
Students will record their findings in their CSI notebook.
Eva Larabee
Tessa Utter
Mikayla Kruse-Meek

● They have included their evidence

● The mascots that were implicated (norseman, stormy, and sir victor)
● They have provided a complete answer to why or why not chromatography is
reliable.

Chromatography Student Notebook

During the Family Fun night, the mascots signed autographs using black ink pens.
The competition committee did not supply the pens, so each mascot brought their
own. The mysterious note taped to Dewey Duhawk’s locker was also written in
black ink. The CSI investigators think that by using a scientific process of paper
chromatography they might be able to determine which mascot may have written
the threatening note giving them evidence that may point to the perpetrator.

Each mascot’s pens were confiscated and labeled for testing. Follow the procedure
for conducting the scientific test and then list your conclusion.

Background Information on Chromatography

What is paper chromatography?

It is a method of separating the components of a mixture. During the procedure,

the mixture will be separated into its individual components, allowing the
individual parts to be identified. Chromatography is used to separate and identify
all sorts of substances in police work. Drugs ranging from narcotics to aspirin can
be identified in urine and blood samples, often with the aid of chromatography.

Chromatography is a way of separating out a mixture of chemicals, which are in

gas or liquid form, by letting them creep slowly past another substance, which is
typically a liquid or solid. So, with the ink and paper, we have a liquid (the ink)
dissolved in water or another solvent creeping over the surface of a solid (the
paper).
Eva Larabee
Tessa Utter
Mikayla Kruse-Meek

The essential thing about chromatography is that we have some mixture in one
state of matter (something like a gas or liquid) moving over the surface of
something else in another state of matter (a liquid or solid) that stays where it is.
The moving substance is called the mobile phase and the substance that stays put is
the stationary phase. As the mobile phase moves, it separates out into its
components on the stationary phase. We can then identify them one by one.

How does chromatography work?

Think of chromatography as a race and you'll find it's much simpler than it sounds.
Waiting on the starting line, you've got a mixture of chemicals in some
unidentified liquid or gas, just like a load of runners all mixed up and bunched
together. When a race starts, runners soon spread out because they have different
abilities. In exactly the same way, chemicals in something like a moving liquid
mixture spread out because they travel at different speeds over a stationary solid.
The key thing to remember is that chromatography is a surface effect.
As the liquid starts to move past the solid, some of its molecules (energetic things
that are constantly moving about) are sucked toward the surface of the solid and
stick there temporarily before being pulled back again into the liquid they came
from. This exchange of molecules between the surface of the solid and the liquid is
a kind of adhesive or gluing effect called adsorption (with a d—don't confuse it
with absorption, with a b, where molecules of one substance are permanently
trapped inside the body of another). Now remember that our liquid is actually a
mixture of quite a few different liquids. Each one undergoes adsorption in a
slightly different way and spends more or less time in either the solid or the liquid
phase. One of the liquids might spend much longer in the solid phase than in the
liquid, so it would travel more slowly over the solid; another one might spend less
time in the solid and more in the liquid, so it would go a bit faster. Another way of
looking at it is to think of the liquid as a mixture of glue-like liquids, some of
which stick more to the solid (and travel more slowly) than others. This is what
causes the different liquids within our original liquid mixture to spread out on the
solid.
For chromatography to work effectively, we obviously need the components of the
mobile phase to separate out as much as possible as they move past the stationary
phase. That's why the stationary phase is often something with a large surface area,
such as a sheet of filter paper, a solid made of finely divided particles, a liquid
Eva Larabee
Tessa Utter
Mikayla Kruse-Meek

deposited on the surface of a solid, or some other highly absorbent material.

What is chromatography used for?

Chromatography was developed in Russia in 1906 by an Italian-born botanist
named Mikhail Tswett (sometimes spelled Tsvet; 1872–1919), who used it for
studying plant pigments such as chlorophyll. During the 20th century, chemists
found chromatography was a superb technique for studying and separating all
kinds of complex mixtures. It's now widely used in forensic science (for
identifying samples taken from crime scenes), in pollution monitoring (for
identifying small concentrations of unknown pollutants in air and water samples),
and for studying complex mixtures in such things as food, perfume, petrochemical,
and pharmaceutical production. One of chromatography's big advantages is that it
works with tiny samples and low concentrations (particularly helpful when it
comes to such things as forensic science and drug or pollution testing).

DATA

Tape your chromatograms below and label each one.

Eva Larabee
Tessa Utter
Mikayla Kruse-Meek

Which mascot(s) seem to be implicated by the chromatography evidence?

How reliable is this evidence?