Chromatography

Imagine that you have a bunch of different colors of crayons in a big box. Sometimes, you might want to sort them all out based on their color. You could do this by taking a piece of white paper and coloring each crayon on the paper, then cutting out each section and comparing them to each other.

Chromatography is kind of like this, but instead of separating colors, we're separating different substances (like chemicals) that might be mixed together. Instead of using paper, we use a special material called chromatography paper.

First, we put a spot of the mixture we want to separate onto the chromatography paper. Then, we take the paper and place it in a jar with a special liquid called the solvent. This liquid will move up the paper, and as it does, it will carry the mixture along with it.

Different substances in the mixture will move at different speeds depending on how they interact with the solvent and the paper. Some might move faster and further up the paper than others, while some might not move at all.

After the paper has had enough time to soak up the solvent and move the mixture, we can take it out and see what happened. We might be able to see different sections on the paper - each section made up of different types of substances that were separated by the chromatography.

In summary, chromatography is a way to separate different substances that are mixed together using a special paper and liquid. It's kind of like sorting colors of crayons, but for chemicals!