[JacksonM]

I'm trying to do my Chem 1212 L and one of the questions asked me whether the mobile or stationary phase of the system is more polar in our paper chromatography experiment. This isn't something we actually learned but that they wanted us to research. I researched and all I could find was that the paper is made of cellulose, which is polar. The chromatography solution we used is a mix of acetonitrile and ammonium acetate which are both polar as well. So how am I supposed to determine which one is MORE polar?

[Arkcon]

If you separated two or more components, and you know how polar they are, then you can use that information to help you figure it out.

[JacksonM]

Honestly I'm not following. I'm struggling quite a bit in this class right now. I know cellulose has several polar alcohol groups bonded to carbons and then acetonitrile has a C-N bond and Ammonium acetate has two C-O bonds. I don't really know what to make of that though. C-O has the higher electronegativity out of that and C-N, but what about the CO/CN combo vs. C-OH? Or maybe I'm looking at this wrong altogether but I really have no idea what I'm supposed to be interpreting here. We have done nothing related to comparing polarity in class, only distinguishing between polar and non-polar.