CHEMISTRY YEAR 09 Class activity sheet-25 (Separation of mixtures)

Lesson objectives:
By the end of this lesson, about 70% of the learners should be able to:
 State and explain the how mixtures can be separated by decantation, filtration and paper chromatography.
 Suggest suitable examples of mixtures separated by decantation, filtration and paper chromatography.
Recap of previous lesson:
What can you recall about the last lesson?
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Prompt for prior knowledge:

What do you know about purification (separation of mixture)?

Purification techniques
- Impure substances contain more than one kind of component present.
- Definition: purification is the separation process of mixtures into pure substances by the use of
physical methods.
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(A) Decantation
- Some solid-liquid mixtures contain an insoluble solid
that settles at the bottom of the liquid in the mixture.
- Such a solid is called a sediment. Such a mixture can be
separated by decanting.
- Decanting involves carefully pouring a liquid from a
mixture of liquid into another container and leaving
behind the undissolved solid.

ACTIVITY 01:
(a) What term will be used describe sand in a mixture of sand and water? Explain.
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(b) What method can be used to separate water from the mixture of sand and water?
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(c) Can the method stated in (a) (ii) above completely separate water from the sand? Explain.
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(B) Filtration
- Some solid-liquid mixtures contain an insoluble solid
that suspends throughout the liquid in the mixture.
- Such a solid is called a suspension.
- Such a mixture can be separated by filtration using a
filter paper and a funnel.
- Mixture is poured through a filter made of paper with
tiny holes (pores).
- Large solid particles cannot pass through the pores
and trapped in it as residue while tiny liquid particles
pass through and collected as filtrate.
ACTIVITY 02:
(a) On the diagram, identify the dust particles in the funnel.
(b) What name is given to the dust particles separated from the mixture?
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(c) What name is given to the pure water separated from the mixture?
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(d) Chalk powder is insoluble in water but suspends in water. What method (decantation or filtration)
can be used to separate water from a mixture of chalk powder in water? Explain.
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(e) Can the quantity of water in mixture all be recovered? Explain. ……………………………………
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(f) Why can salt not be separated from salt solution by filtration?
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(C) Paper chromatography
- Chromatography from the word Greek chroma meaning
colour is used to separate and identify colours,
pigments and dyes.
- It can tell whether a solution has become contaminated.
- A drop of concentrated solution of mixture (mobile
phase) is usually placed on a pencil line near the bottom
edge of a strip of chromatography paper (stationary
phase) and allow to dry.
- The strip of paper is then dipped in the solvent (e.g. ethanol, acetone etc).
- The solvent level slowly rises, separating the dye molecules in the mixture and carry them up at
different rates because the dye molecules have different solubilities in the solvent.
- Depending on how strong the attraction is between the dye molecules and the solvent, it will
move more slowly or quickly as the solvent level rises.
- If the ink is a mixture of two or more dyes, then the different colours will move at different rates.
- This separates the different components of ink, allowing us to identify the colours used.
- The distance moved by a particular spot is measured and related to the position of the solvent
front.
- Retention factor (Rf) also called Rf value is given by the formula below.
distance moved by sustance
Rf value =
distance moved by solvent
- The filter paper showing the separated dye molecules is called a chromatogram. This method
works because different substances travel at different speeds because they have different levels
of attraction to it.
- Locating agents e.g. ninhydrin are substances that react with colourless spots e.g sugar spots,
amino acids spots on a chromatogram and makes them visible as coloured spots.
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Uses of chromatography:
• Separate mixtures of substances e.g. amino acids, dyes in ink, chlorophyll etc
• Purify a substance by separating the impurities from it
 • Identify a substance e.g. helps in crime detection
• check purity of a substance
• Identify pollutants in air, or in samples of river water
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Interpreting simple chromatograms:
- Number of different levels of spots = number of substances in the mixture
- If two dots travel the same distance up the paper they are the same substance.
- The value of Rf calculated helps to identify a particular substance such amino acids.
- The substance far up the chromatogram is the most soluble in the solvent.
- A pure substance produces only one spot on a chromatogram.
- The distance travelled by a particular substance is unique.
- The greater the distance travelled by spot up the paper, the more soluble the component.
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ACTIVITY 03: Given the diagrams below.

(a) Why must the line be drawn using a pencil and not using ink?
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(b) Which of the substances X, A, B, C and D is a pure? Explain.
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(c) Which of the substances X, A, B, C and D is a mixture? Explain. ………………………………….
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(d) How many substances (components) were in the mixture? Explain.
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(e) Identify the substances that were in the mixture using the letters: A, B, C and D.
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(f) Using the letters: A, B, C and D, state and explain the substance(s) in the mixture with the most
soluble component in the solvent. …………………………………………………………………..
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ACTIVITY 04: Diagram I below contains some amino acids and their respective R f values while
diagram II is a chromatogram a mixture X containing amino acids.
I II

(a) How many amino acids were in mixture X? ………………………………………………………

(b) Using diagram II, calculate the Rf value of each amino acid and use diagram I to identify each
amino acid. …………………………………………………………………………………………
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(c) If serine was one of the amino acids in the mixture, calculate its distance travelled and mark its
position on the chromatogram. ………………………………………………………………………
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ASSIGNMENT

ANSWERS
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[Grand total = 7 mks]