It was super fun to see a bunch of black ink turn into a beautiful rainbow of color.
- It's important that only the wick and not the filler paper circle be in contact with the water in the cup because in order for the solvent (water) to adsorb through the filter paper and separate the "black" ink mixture into an array of color, it must seep through very slowly though capillary action. The only way capillary action can occur is if the water spreads outwards from a point; it won't happen if the whole paper is saturated at once.
- The pattern of colors produced on the filter paper is affected by different variables, such as the different pens used (different mixtures of color in each), the varied properties of the components of the mixture (some will be more adsorbed into the paper, and some more adsorbed into the solvent), and the length of time the wick is spent in the water.
- Each ink separates into different pigment bands because, like many other materials in nature, the ink is a mixture made up of a rainbow of other colors that, when acted upon by the solvent of water, will become separated and spread into different pigment bands.
- The blue pigment is present in multiple different pens, and I believe that it is same in the different pens because in each chromatogram, the same vibrant, aqua blue color is present right on the edge of the design. The blue must be the same in each pen because of the similar location and shade every time.
- Solely water-soluable pens and markers are used in this activity because the solvent we used to separate the ink mixtures was water. If the ink we used was not water-soluable, like the squiggles that stayed black in the photo above, the inks did not adhere to the water and spread out, thus defeating the purpose of a cladogram. in order to modify the experiment to be able to separate pigments in permanent marker, we could use a different solvent that separates permanent inks such as alcohol.
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