Biology Forums - Study Force

Write one clear paragraph describing the success (or lack thereof) of your distillation.  Based on all available experimental data (fraction volumes, boiling points, and corrected refractive indices), was your distillation successful in isolating the three pure component liquids from the mixture?  If not, was it at least as successful as theoretically possible? 

Distillation is a method that has been used for many centuries to purifying or separating mixture liquids based on the differences in boiling point of the mixture. However, in this lab, the simple distillation apparatus was set up as demonstrated in appendix C4 in order to separate the component of the mixtures of three organic liquids (ethyl acetate, 2-methoxyethanol and methanol) Also, to determine the purify of the three substances by measuring its refraction index using The Abbé Refractometer apparatus as its depicted and explained in appendix B2. However, the distillation process started after obtaining 80 mL of the mixture that contain percentage by volume each of (45%ethyl acetate, 28%2-methoxyethanol, 27%methanol). Thus, the distillation apparatus heated at temperature of 65o C in order to collect the fraction since the b.p of the first liquid mixture (methanol) start at65o C  till the b.p of the 2-methoxyethanol which 125 o C .  The refraction indexes of multiple fractions (approximately seven fractions) were collected with the temperature range of (5-10 o C) was measured. As a result, the distillation was successful in isolating the three pure components liquids from the mixture for many reasons. Firstly, the three organic liquid compounds were separated or purified based on their boiling points as illustrated in the lab manual. For example, methanol has the lowest boiling point (65o C) in the mixture so it was the first fraction that was collected with refraction index of 1.361 at a volume of 12.5mL. After the temperature of the thermometer reached the value 77oC, Ethyl acetate was collected as the second fraction and since 2-methoxy ethanol had the higher b.p which 125oCso it was collected lastly as the third fraction with refraction index of 1.403.  Secondly,  the temperature changes was observed when the first fraction was completely distill the temperature between the first fraction and second was dropped down ( because there was no hot gas pass through tip of the thermometer) and then raising to the second fraction boiling point therefore the data that obtained in the experiments confirmed the correction of  distillation process.