Blue Candy Chromatography

After extracting, filtering, and condensing the blue and pink dyes off of the candies, it can be determined that the Blue candy is FD & C Dye Blue 1 and the Pink candy is a mix of Yellow 5 and Red 40. During the solvent evaporation for the blue dye, it was observed that when concentrated, the transparency of the dye was similar to that of Blue 1. During the paper chromatography of Project 2 Session 1, the blue dye showed on the chromatogram to have the highest spot height. Similar to the paper chromatography today which the blue dye was observed having the higher spot height as well. Figure 3 of the Project 2 In-Lab Report displays Blue 1 of having an Rf value of .729. The blue dye off of the candy, as seen in Figure 2, has an Rf value of .657.

Both chromatograms were under the same conditions except the chromatogram today ran only for 9 minutes as opposed to the 12 minutes of the previous chromatogram. The blue dye displays more similar characteristics to the Blue 1 FD & C Dye than any other the other dyes which is why it can be concluded that it is that dye.
The pink dye displays qualitative and quantitative characteristics more similar to the Yellow 5 and Red 40 Dye than any other FD & C Dyes. The pink dye must be composed of two dyes because no single FD & C Dye is the same color. When spotted on the chromatogram, the pink dye was hard to see and required several applications before the spot was dark enough to see. This was similarly observed with the Yellow 5 dye on the previous lab’s chromatogram. When comparing Rf values, pink had the lowest. Pink’s Rf value was 0.07, as seen in Figure 2. Red 40’s Rf value, displayed in Figure 3 of the Project 2 In-Lab Report, was also the lowest at .155. While these two aren’t similar in numbers, Red 40 has the closest Rf value to the Pink dye which means Red 40 makes up some percentage of the pink dye. The pink dye displays more similar characteristics to the Red 40 and Yellow 5 FD & C Dyes than any other the other dyes which is why it can be concluded that it is that dye.