Who doesn't love a colorful and easy experiment to make paper chromatography art, that doubles as bookmarks! You can get creative and customize your own chromatography art with these simple steps:
Materials:
1-2 Crayola Markers
Coffee filters (cut into 6ths) hole punched at the top
A cup of water
String (optional)
Process:
Take a coffee filter and draw an arc (one arc only!!) around a thumb above the bottom of the coffee filter
You may use multiple colors. For a rainbow, draw a tiny dash of each color next to each other
DO NOT draw multiple arcs (like standard rainbow). This is will ruin your bookmark
Ask a volunteer to soak your bookmark into water.
Volunteer should take the bookmark, stick the spaghetti stick through hole, and place stick on the rim of the cup.
Let soak.
Watch the magic as the water blends out the color of the crayola markers
Take out of water and dry off. Now you can take your bookmark home!
The Science Behind It
Congrats, you have just witnessed the idea of capillary action. A special trait of water, capillary action is controlled by water’s two most important qualities: adhesion and cohesion. Capillary action is used in plants to distribute water from the roots to the rest of the plant, and more importantly, capillary action is what helps deliver water to your cells so you can live. So how this bookmark works:
Once the bookmark touches the water, the water climbs up the bookmark through capillary action. The cohesion between the water and the coffee filter material as well as the adhesion of the tiny water molecules on the coffee filter help pull the water up the bookmark.
Then, once the water reaches the ink, it helps spread the ink. Because Crayola markers are water-based markers, the water in the ink adheres to the water traveling up the coffee filter. Then, as the water travels up the filter, it brings the ink with it!
Comments