Paper chromatography is a modern method used separate mixtures. Paper chromatography uses paper as the stationary phase and a liquid solvent as the mobile phase.
You will use paper chromatography to test food colorings to see if the color results from a single dye or mixture of dyes. If you cannot get food coloring you can use colored felt pens or other water soluble coloring pens. Your exercise is simple but uses very essential principles. An optional part of the activity is to check a household product for the presence of the same dyes that are in food coloring.
The technique relies on the idea that the solvent and the paper both have an attraction for the components in a mixture. The solvent creeps along the surface of the paper. If a material is placed on one spot on the paper and is soluble in the liquid solvent, the material will be dissolved when the solvent moves over it. The material will move along with the solvent. Each compound in a mixture will have its own characteristic balance of attractions to solvent and to paper, so all will not move at the same speed. Eventually this difference in speed will separate the compounds.
In paper chromatography when the conditions are kept constant, a particular compound always travels a fixed percentage of the distance traveled by the solvent front. The ratio of the distance the compound travels to the distance the solvent travels is called the Rf value. The symbol Rf stands for "retardation factor" or "ratio-to-front". It is expressed as a decimal fraction. When the conditions are duplicated, the same average relative positions will turn up for the solvent and solute; thus the Rf value is a constant for a given compound. The Rf value is a physical property for that compound. The Rf value is useful in identifying compounds, but other properties should be used in combination with the Rf value to confirm compound identification. Since it is difficult for different laboratories to exactly duplicate conditions for a chromatography experiment, Rf values are more useful for comparisons within one lab than for comparisons of data from different labs.
Substances that are not colored can also be separated by chromatography. They are detected using ultraviolet or black light. These substances appear to glow in the dark.

Choo Jia Wei