A challenging question...think you can do it????

Question

A pharmaceutical chemist runs a chromatography test on a substance and identifies two of its components by comparing their Rf values against certain standards. If the two components have Rf values of 1.0 and 0.41 and the solvent front has traveled 12.0 cm from the samples origin, what is the separation distance on the chromatogram??

Answer 1

The definition of Rf in the chromatography is:
Rf = (Distance moved by compound)/(Distance moved by solvent).
Let the distance moved by 1st compound to be D1, and the distance moved by 2nd compound to be D2. We have:
D1 - D2 = (Rf1 - Rf2)*12.0cm = 0.59*12.0cm = 7.1 cm