Paper Chromatography Questions
Paper Chromatography Questions
Answer: (b) Paper Chromatography is a separatory technique that is used to separate complex
mixtures.
Q9. What are the moving and stationary phases in paper chromatography?
Answer: Water absorbed on the cellulose, constituting the paper, works as a stationary phase while the
organic solvent works as a moving phase in the paper chromatography.
Q12. How does the liquid rise through a filter paper in paper chromatography?
Answer: The liquid rise through a filter paper in paper chromatography by the mean of the capillary
action.
Q13. What are the various factors that affect the Rf value of a compound?
Answer: Rf value of a compound depends on the following factors.
1. Temperature of the surroundings
2. Nature of the compound
3. Nature of the solvent.
Q14. What are the fundamental features of the compound used as a developer?
Answer: The fundamental features of the compound used as a developer are enlisted below.
1. The compound should not react with the substances that are being separated.
2. The compound should be volatile.
3. The compound must impart colour at separate spots.
Q15. In which of the following type of paper chromatography does the mobile phase move horizontally
over a circular sheet of paper?
(a) Ascending – descending chromatography
(b) Ascending paper chromatography
(c) Descending paper chromatography
(d) Radial paper chromatography
Answer: (d) In radial paper chromatography, the mobile phase move horizontally over a circular sheet
of paper.
Answer: (b) The size of the spot in paper chromatography should be between two to five mm.
Q2. What are the limitations of paper chromatography?
Answer: Paper Chromatography is a very cheap, susceptible and straightforward technique, but we
can not apply a large quantity of samples to paper chromatography. In a quantitative analysis, paper
chromatography is not practical. A complex mixture cannot be separated by paper chromatography.
Answer: Paper chromatography depends upon two non-mixing liquid phases, the solvent and the
water bound to the cellulose molecules of the filter paper. When a substance soluble in the two
non-mixing solvents is exposed simultaneously to both, it will partition itself between them. The process
in which substances move in one medium when placed in another medium is called partitioning.
Answer: Water is polar, so any non-polar substance dissolved in it will dissolve in the water. When the
water travels up the paper, it will take any non-polar substance dissolved in it with it. This means that if
you were trying to separate a mixture of non-polar and polar substances, they would all travel up the
paper together, and you wouldn’t be able to tell which was which. The problem here is that all
compounds dissolve equally well in water, so many of your compounds would remain in the aqueous
layer on top of the stationary layer and not move at all.
Q5. Which of the following types of chromatography involves the process where the mobile phase
moves through the stationary phase by the influence of gravity or capillary action?
(a) Column Chromatography
(b) High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography
(c) Gas Chromatography
(d) Paper Chromatography
Answer: (d) In Paper Chromatography, the stationary phase is supported on a flat plate of paper. The
mobile phase moves by the influence of gravity or capillary action.