Materials
A small beaker (50 mL),
glass rod, 0.1% salt solution (eluent), 12 screw capped small vials or
Eppendorf small tubes for fraction collection, a small piece of cotton
Pasteur pipette (plastic),
two 2 mL syringes, silicon rubber tube 3 cm, baby food-cornflour
(solid phase), a mixture of red and blue food dyes (or other mixture)
Experimental
1. Remove one plunger from
on of the syringes, and add a small piece of cotton to narrow part of the
syringe bottom.
2. Add to the beaker few
spoons of cornflour following by 20-25 mL of 0.1% salt solution. Mix with
the stirring rod.
3. Add to the syringe ca.
1.5 mL of the slurry prepared in paragraph 2. Connect a second syringe
to the first one with the silicon rubber tube and slowly push its plunger.
4. Continue the pumping
with occasional depletion of the second syringe, until the solid phase
in the column syringe is tight and with minimum eluent.
5. Add one drop of
the dyes’ mixture to the top of the solid phase and draw it a bit inward
with the help of the second syringe.
6. Add some eluent solution
to the top of the solid phase and start the seperation of the dyes.
During the run use the second syringe as a pump and add more eluent as
needed.
7. From time to time disconnect
the rubber tube from the syringe and pour the collected liquid into the
vials. Photos: In this way the seperation is achieved.