Separating Colors with Paper Chromatography

“You perform paper chromatography on a mixture of two blue inks. After the experiment, one ink has travelled further up the paper than the other. Explain why this happened in terms of the inks' solubility in the solvent. A student uses paper chromatography to separate the dyes in a green food colouring. They find that the green colour separates into a blue dye that travels a long distance and a yellow dye that travels a short distance. Explain what this tells you about the relative solubility of the blue and yellow dyes in the solvent used. Imagine you are using paper chromatography to test a new brand of felt-tip pens. One pen's ink separates into three distinct colours after the experiment. Explain how the different distances travelled by each colour relate to their solubility in the solvent.”