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AP Chemistry
3.9 Separation of Solutions and Mixtures
3.1 Intermolecular and Interparticle Forces
AdvancedMCQConceptualExperimental18.7k
A student uses paper chromatography to separate a mixture of two polar food dyes, Dye A and Dye B. The stationary phase is chromatography paper composed of cellulose, which contains numerous polar \(-\text{OH}\) groups. The mobile phase is a polar mixture of water and ethanol. In the initial trial, Dye A travels near the solvent front with an \(R_f\) value of \(0.75\), while Dye B travels a shorter distance with an \(R_f\) value of \(0.20\). The student repeats the experiment using a new strip of the same cellulose paper and the same dye mixture, but mistakenly uses pure hexane, \(\text{C}_6\text{H}_{14}\text{(l)}\) (a nonpolar solvent), as the mobile phase. Which of the following best predicts and explains the effect of this procedural error on the \(R_f\) values of the dyes?

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