Asked by chrissy

when doing a paper chromatography lab, my class used a solvent with a neutral pH, which my teacher said would help separate the amino acids with simialar Rf values. can anyone please explain why we needed to use a solvent with a neutral pH?
Answered by DrBob222
Amino acids have both basic and acid groups on them. Solvents that are basic will react with the acid part and solvents that are acidic will react with the basic part. A solvent with a neutral pH won't react with either. I should point out that acidic/basic/neutral applies usually only to aqueous solvents.
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