Investigate the composition of inks using simple distillation and paper chromatography

Step 1

1) Ink is a mixture of different dyes dissolved in a solvent → to work out what solvent the ink contains use simple distillation which allows you to evaporate off the solvent and collect it

Step 2

[2) The thermometer in the distillation set-up will read the boiling point of the solvent when it’s evaporating → you can use this to determine what it is]

Step 3

3) Then carry out paper chromatography on a sample of the ink → this will separate put the different dyes in the ink so that you can see how many there are

Step 4

4) Compare Rf values of the different spots on the chromatogram produced by reference values to work out what dyes are in the ink