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Extracting organic pigments using paper chromatography (1 Viewer)

Glenjamin

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I need help extracting pigments from leaves using paper chromatography. I'm having difficulty finding a solvent to use ( does kerosene or vinegar work?) and finding a method used to extract the pigment. PLease help thank you
 

brenton1987

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To extract the pigment grind the leaves and some sand in a mortar and pestle. Add 20 mL of acetone to extract the pigments and continue grinding until the extract is green. Add 10 mL of hexane fraction (hexane through octane) mix and extract the liquid from the pulp. Two layers should form. A pale yellow lower layer and a bright green upper layer. The green layer contains the pigments.

Ive used a variety of mobile phases for pigment extraction. The mobile phase can be a mixture of 95% dichloromethane, 5% methanol. Another mixture that would work is 60% butan-1-ol, 20% ethanol, 20% 2 M ammonia.

Vinegar by itself would not work very well, you would have better success with kerosene.
 

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