How do you determine polarity of a mixture?

Question

I recently performed an amino acid experiment with chromatography paper using a mixture of ethanol, ammonia and water as the solvent in a ratio of 8:3:1. Individually the substances are polar, but are they polar mixed? is it a mixture or compound now?

Answer 1

Your solvent is a mixture. Think about what makes the solvent polar, and you will realise that it still is. I think the ammonia may be there to partly neutralise the amino acid.

I think the ammonia that you used must be a solution of ammonia in water. Ammonia itself is a gas at room temperature, and you would not want to breathe it.