Ink Chromatography

[mke]

Soon, I will check all my inks with paper chromatography. Today, I only played around a little bit.

 

 

With Gutenberg Red, I am absolutely not sure how many single colors are in it. There is pink in it, that is clear - but on top could be a kind of flesh-colored red or some yellowish red or a sand-color.

Pelikan 4001 Turquoise seems be a single color, I think that dark blue spec at the top is from a lot of ink at the same place.

Parker Blue-Black now is one of these surprises, it seems to consist of a mixture of blue with turquoise.

Diamine Royal Blue is a mixture of turquoise and violet.

The Octopus Brilliant Red seems to be a mixture of a sand-colored yellow and a pinkish red, again here, the blob at the top is actually too much ink for this chromatographical analysis.

The Otto Hutt Blue might be actually Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, I am not sure if I refilled the cartridge or not. If I refilled it than certainly with Pelikan. I will recheck all my inks (100+) with a standardized method over the next 1-2 months. At that time, I will really find out what I have in this pen. Anyway, this ink is made from turquoise and violet and pink.

 

Later, I will also describe my method. I often see that people use way too much ink, so they don't get any separation. They also might use paper which is not suitable.

So wait for more, please.

Edited July 24, 2019 by mke

[lapis]

Thanks for these images. I do analyses like that all the time. I'm not trying to "educate" you but here are just a couple of tips....

• The Pelikan Turquoise has at least 2 components. It's not just the colors but more importantly the speed (@ distance covered). I.e., here there are 2 different migrations over the baseline.
• The best way to see how similar (or not) Otto Hutt Blue is with Pelikan Royal Blue would be to do one chromatography of both, side by side.
• Try and work out one single technique. E.g. one paper (blotting paper is good), one volume (e.g. 1-3 µl) and one solution (e.g. 50% isopropanol). Of course there are dozens-hundreds of possibilities!
• One "problem" or limitation here is that that type of chromatography can't discern the presence of surfactants/tensides/detergents or decontaminants -- both of which can be of utmost importance in an ink -- because these are all colorless.

[mke]

As I said I was just playing around, 15 min during lunchtime. I haven't tried anything but water on paper yet. No solvents yet, no desactivated aluminum oxide/silica.

I also have not yet looked at the developed chromatos under UV light.

 

Regarding the turquoise, it is just smearing, I think. This is a case where I need to reduce the polarity of the solvent system: e.g. water → water/alcohol. And need to check with UV.

 

The additives can drag components with them, requiring multi-stage developments.

 

Not as easy, as some people might think.

 

I am just setting up an SOP.

Edited July 24, 2019 by mke

[Sakura FP Gallery]

I think you both need to check out Nick Stewart's blog )

Have fun with the chromatography !!

 

http://nickstewart.ink

[mke]

Does he do real chromatography? He has it as a tag, but I haven't seen any.

[mke]

I took another short look at the Pelikan 4001 Turquoise - 1 to 3 (of 4) on the left side. Pelikan Royal Blue is Nr.4.

 

 

These chromatographs are developed on silica as the so-called stationary phase. The interaction between this phase and the inks is different for each ink and the interaction strength makes some inks move slower and some inks move quicker.

The liquid phase (which makes the colors move) is - from left to the right:

Nr.1: 100% water, Nr.2: 50% water+ 50% isopropanol, Nr.3 and 4: 20% water + 80% isopropanol

 

Nr.1 and Nr.3 are not good, not the optimal condition, Nr. 2 looks much better, but it is still moving to fast.

What you can say is, that Pelikan Turquoise is either 1 single dye or several dyes which are very similar to each other. Similar materials will move in a very similar fashion and cannot easily be differentiated.

As you can see, the Pelikan Royal Blue looks very different, it seems to be a multi-dye mixture, the big spot on top are actually a violet and a blue dye, below that you can see 2-3 more dyes.

 

I am going to look into using different solvents, different stationary phases. I know that deactivated aluminium oxide is very suitable for dyes; much better than the silica I used. Unfortunately, I had none at hand today. I just ordered some.

 

If someone knows suitable analytical conditions for fountain pen inks, please tell me. Re-inventing the wheel is unnecessary.

[SamCapote]

I mostly did mine with cut strips of coffee filters and tap water. But try doing it with Vinegar, or a dilution because it is an acid. Have fun.

[mke]

Have a look - this is the chromatography of a Sailor ink. It seems to be (mainly) one dye (the rose-colored spot) and several additives (brown and yellow). Perhaps one of them is that special Sailor ink smell?

(FYI: on silica TLC, using 100% IPA as liquid phase)

 

 

[Flaxmoore]

Let me work up a strip with Pelikan Red. It comes out like a 70s sofa- pinks, yellows.