Colors to Dye For!

Overview

Objectives/Goals To separate and identify the dyes in Skittles# using paper chromatography. Methods/Materials 100 sheets of chromatography paper; One skein of pure virgin wool, unbleached; 25 square feet of aluminum foil; One set (four colors, red, yellow, blue, green) of food coloring (0.3 ounces each); 500 mL of household ammonia; 475 mL of distilled white vinegar; Skittles(tm); Scissors; Stapler; Five 100 mL beakers; Five 400 mL beakers; Five test tubes (15 x 200 mm); One Ring stand; Five test tube clamps; One stirring rod; Five evaporating dishes (75 mL); One gallon of distilled water; Camera; Safety goggles; Safety gloves; One safety lab coat; Writing Implement such as a pencil; Metric Ruler; Computer. Conclusions/Discussion After performing this science project a number of times, I determined that my hypothesis was correct; the primary Skittle# colors, (Red and Yellow) only had one dye, while the secondary Skittle# colors, (Green, Purple, and Orange) had more than one dye. This is because secondary colors are made up by using a combination of the primary colors, thus requiring a number of different dyes. In contrast, the primary colors are made up exclusively of one color dye. Due to the boiling process necessary to Candy Chromatography, I determined that it would not be possible to use chocolate based candies, such as M&M#s#. Although some recommend using M&M#s# in this experiment, the chocolate would melt and the color coating would be absorbed, making it impossible to perform such an experiment, in my estimation.

Competition history

• CSEF 2006 Chemistry · Entry J0534

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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