Lead Pencils: Do they contain Lead ( Pb )? Anand S. Burange Department of Chemistry, Wilson College, Mumbai, India Motivation for writing this blog is an occurrence of one incident few months back in our Wilson College. In Mumbai University syllabus for second year undergraduates, we have chromatographic separation (paper chromatography) of metal ions where mixture of metal salts is spotted on paper and further run in mobile phase (acetone:HCl). Since different metal ions have different retention factors; they can be easily separated and then identified by using complexing agents to form coloured complexes on a paper. During the practical, when students were asked by my colleague Thomson (Asst. Professor) to put one spot and draw a line on a paper by pencil (to calculate Rf values later), one student raised query that lead pencil contains Pb (metal), and it should also show spot alike other metal. At that time, many students believed that lead pencil contains lead (Pb) a