In: Chemistry
Paper chromatography is a analytical technique (one of the chromatographic technique) which is used to seperate coloured components on a specialised filter paper composed of celluloe which act as stationary phase. And the solvent used is mobile phase.
Amino acid structure is like: H2N-CH(R)-COOH.
Different amino acids travel with different rates on the paper due to difference in their R group.
Amino acid which has higher affinity towards mobile phase will go up the with the mobile phase while amino acid which has higher affinity towards stationary phase, it will stick to the paper and move more slowly with the solvent (mobile phase). Usually smaller amino acid molecules will move farther than larger amino acid molecules.
The affinity of amino acid with mobile phase depend on solublity of amino acid in mobile phase.
Other factors that affect migration are molecular weight of amino acid, size, shape, polarity,etc.
The rate of movement of amino acid wrt to solvent front is given by the term Rf (Retention or Retardation Factor). It is defined as the ratio of distance travelled by the amino acid to the distance travelled by the solvent (mobile phase).