Science at Home: DIY Column Chromatography

In this activity, we separate two different colors of ink. This is an example of column chromatography, which uses different chemical
characteristics - pH, salinity, size, or in this case, electrical charge (polarity) - to separate the items.
Instruction sheet: bit.ly/diychroma
Column chromatography is a technique used to separate different compounds from each other when they are mixed together in a liquid solution. A chromatography column can use pH, salinity, molecular size, or electrical charge to make compounds move through the column at different speeds. Because each compound travels through the column at a different speed, each leaves the column at a different time and can be collected into individual samples or "fractions" for testing.