LABORATORY REPORT FOR ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY (CHM207)
EXPERIMENT:EXTRACTION AND DRYING OF AN
AQUEOUS SOLUTION
NAME FAKHRI NAZMI BIN NORIN
GROUP AS1142C1
DATE OF EXPERIMENT
DATE OF SUBMISSION
MARKS
Objective, title and
Introduction
Experimental
procedure
Results:
data, figures, graphs,
tables, etc.
Discussion
Conclusion
Appearance, references
and formatting
Question
Objective
1. To learn the techniques of separating toluene from water (and other inorganic
compounds) by extraction
2. To learn the techniques of drying a dehydrated solution.
Questions
1. When you are extracting an aqueous solution with an organic solvent, you are
uncertain of which layer in the separatory funnel is aqueous, how would you
quickly sort out the issue.
Add a bit of water from a dropper to the separatory funnel and watch where the
water droplets go. If the top layer is aqueous, the water will disappear (dissolve)
with aqueous layer. If the bottom layer is aqueous, the water droplet will fall
through the top layer and mix with bottom layer.
2. What is the purpose of using anhydrous magnesium sulphate in the experiment?
The purpose of using anhydrous magnesium sulphate is to use as drying agent
because it is hygroscopic which is absorb water.
3. Draw the apparatus needed for extraction.
4. How do you estimate the anhydrous magnesium sulphate added is enough for the
solvent in the experiment.
Put a small amount of anhydrous magnesium sulphate into the solvent and swirled
the mixture. If the solution is translucent and there is still drying agent flowing
around in the mixture and not clump, the solution is reasonably dry.
Discussion
In this experiment, liquid-liquid extraction is used. Liquid-liquid extraction involves the
separation of the solutes of a liquid solution by contact with another insoluble liquid.
Solutes are separated based on their different solubilities in different liquids. Drying is also
involved in this experiment. Drying organic solutions is the process of synthetizing and
isolating an organic compound often results in an organic compound or solution
contaminated with water. In aqueous extraction some water will be transferred into the
organic phase because of partial miscibility of the organic phase and water. This water must
be removed before the required compound can be properly characterized. Drying agent
used is anhydrous magnesium sulphate because it works well with solvent like diethyl
ether. For the result, organic solvent should be the top layer while water will be at bottom
layer. This is because organic solvent is less dense than water. By adding a drop of water
we can know which one is aqueous layer where the water droplet will disappear (dissolve).
There are several error may occurred during this experiment. First is the adding too much
of drying agent. This will cause water and some of the product absorbed. Thus, less product
will be gain. Second is where the bottle cap is not closed when taking some of drying agent.
This will cause the drying agent to absorb water in air and make the drying agent do not
work effectively.
To overcome this error, do not put too much drying agent by adding a little bit at a moment
until the solution become translucent with free flowing crystal not clump. Second, always
close the drying agent container to avoid any moisture of air will be absorb by drying agent.
Conclusion
For conclusion, the top layer is organic solvent where it is diethyl ether while the bottom
layer is aqueous layer. The techniques of separating toluene from water (and the other
inorganic compounds) by extraction and the techniques of drying a dehydrated solution is
learned.
References
Moldoveanu, Serban & David, Victor. (2015). Chapter 6. Solvent Extraction. 10.1016/B978-0-444-
54319-6.00006-2.
Sastre, A.M. & Szymanowski, J.. (2005). Extraction: Solvent extraction principles. Encyclopedia of
Analytical Science. 569-577. 10.1016/B0-12-369397-7/00688-9.
