"Separating colors in leaves using Chromatography"

                     Rf =  Distance moved from origin by solvent

Each component has a characteristic Rf value for the conditions under which the chromatogram was obtained. By comparing the Rf values of the components of a particular mixture with the Rf values of a known substance under identical conditions, the compounds present in a mixture can be identified.

AIM: to compare and analyse the colors and Rf levels of single leaves and a combination of leaves before and after the chromatographic process.

MATERIALS:

• 4 Camelia tree leaves
• 4 Manchurian Pear tree leaves
• 4 Maple tree leaves
• 4 Azalea tree leaves
• 6 baby food jars
• Plastic wrap
• Isopropyll – available from the supermarket
• Paper filters – I used coffee filters
• Shallow pan
• Luke warm tap water
• Masking tape
• Pen
• Morter and pestle (if you don’t have one use the end of a hammer, or anything that you can use to crush will be fine)
• Clock / timer.

METHOD:

• Grind up the leaves into mushy paste.
• Apply each sample to the bottom of their individual strips of paper.
• The 6 samples should be 1 Maple, Azalea & Maple, Azalea,Maple & Camelia, Camelia, Manchurian Pear
• Fill the jars with enough Isopropyll to cover the strips.
• Use masking tape and pen to make a label to label to leaf jars
• Cover jars with platic wrap.
• Fill shallow pan with 1 inch of luke warm water and place jars in pan from 20 min.
• Allow strips to dry in sun or on clothesline.

OBSERVATIONS & RESULTS

My results from conducting this experiment are as follows:

DISCUSSION:

The main thing I noticed was that after the sample had moved it had changed shape and colour. I noticed that in both the Maple & Azalea, Maple, and the Maple & Camelia samples, there were high Rf levels recorded, which indicated a high distance travelled by the compound. All these samples were mixtures and had maple in them and, once travelled throught the solvent, had changed appearance by losing most, if not all, of the other compound’s indentity, making the maple a more stronger compound.

The worse performer was Manchurian pear.It moved only 1 cm and changed by spreding itself out, which indicates that the compounds found in Manchurian pear leaves are weak, thus only alloing the sample to travel a short distance. Whereas the Maple compounds are strong, allowing the sample to move further distances, retain similar shape and more dominant in colour.

Azalea was another of the lesser performers , by moving only 2 centimetres. I am not surprised by this as the leaves were very soft and , along with the Manchurian Pear, was very easy to crush into a paste when placed on filter paper.

CONCLUSION

It seems that when too organic compounds are mixed, they don’t really mix to form another mixture, they just stick together and still retain many of their original features. It also appears that some compounds found in various leaves are stronder than others, allowing them to travel further in the chromatographic process and rise over other colours once mixed

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

• Vandalay industries for their plant leaves.