© Professor Kathleen V.

Kilway and Robert Clevenger, Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri – Kansas City, 2006

2. Distillation

J.R. Mohrig, Technique 13 Boiling points and distillation

C.N. Hammond, 141-142 (general introduction)
and P.F. Schatz: 145-149 (distillation and separation of mixtures)
164-166 (steam distillation)
172-173 (sources of confusion)

Vocabulary: Vaporization The process of turning a liquid into vapor.

Condensation The process of turning a vapor into a liquid.

Azeotrope It is a mixture of two or more liquids, which boils at a constant

boiling point.

This procedure has been adapted from the macroscale procedure described in Macroscale and
Microscale Organic Chemistry Experiments by Kenneth L. Williamson.

In a nutshell:
Normally, we distill solvents (the liquid in which we run the reaction) from a
drying agent to dry the solvent if water is undesirable using a simple distillation.
A fractional distillation is used to distill two or more components with similar
boiling points. The Techniques in Organic Chemistry’s authors (J.R. Mohrig,
C.N. Hammond, and P.F. Schatz, pg 153) describes steam distillation as the
“codistillation with water” and “allows the distillation of relatively nonvolatile
organic compounds without complex vacuum systems; it is especially useful for
separating volatile organic compounds from nonvolatile inorganic salts or from
the leaves and seeds of plants”.

Background

What is distillation? It is the separation of liquids by vaporization and subsequent

condensation of the vapors in a separate container. You are probably familiar
with this process because it is used in the fragrance as well as the alcohol
industry. In a normal chemistry lab, we use distillation for purification of starting
materials, solvents, and products. In various experiments in organic chemistry
lab, you will be performing both simple and fractional distillations. You may ask
what is the difference between the two different techniques. Well, simple
distillation is used to separate two or more liquids with boiling points less than
150 °C at 1 atmosphere but more than 25 °C difference between each of them.
Fractional distillation is used when the different components of the mixture have
boiling point ranges less than 25 °C from one another.

Not all liquids, even ones with more than 25 °C difference in the boiling points,
can be separated using a normal distillation process. For example, do not try to
distill alcohol at home to see if you can produce 100% ethanol. It does not work.
Why? Well, water and alcohol (ethanol) form an azeotrope, a mixture with a
constant boiling point that cannot be purified by distillation. Azeotropes behave a
lot like pure compounds. Even though the boiling point of ethanol is 78.3 °C and
that of water is 100 °C, you will not be able to obtain purity better than 96%
alcohol / 4% water which is the composition of the azeotrope.

Now, let’s consider steam distillation. As Mohrig points out, it “depends on the
mutual insolubility or immiscibility of many organic compounds with water”. In
this experiment, you will separate two miscible organic compounds (toluene and
benzil) using steam distillation, which will be generated by the addition of water
into your starting flask. The benefits of this technique are reduced temperatures,
increased selectivity, and good separation.

Table 1. Vapor pressure of water (in mmHg) for temperatures between 65 – 101
o
C. (R.C. Weast (Ed). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press,
Baton Rouge, FL p D-232 (1978).

Temp (oC) p (mmHg) Temp (oC) p (mmHg)

65 187.54 84 416.8
66 196.09 85 433.6
67 204.96 86 450.9
68 214.17 87 468.7
69 223.73 88 487.1
70 233.7 89 506.1
71 243.9 90 525.76
72 254.6 91 546.05
73 265.7 92 566.99
74 277.2 93 588.60
75 289.1 94 610.90
76 301.4 95 633.90
77 314.1 96 657.62
78 327.3 97 682.07
79 341.0 98 707.27
80 355.1 99 733.24
81 369.7 100 760.00
82 384.9 101 787.57
83 400.6

It is possible to calculate the “amount of water required for distillation of a given

amount of organic” material (Williamson). The two different partial pressures
must be equal to 760 mmHg (one atmosphere). Using Dalton’s law and assuming

Distillation 2
that the more volatile material occupies more vapor, then the following equation
is valid.

Moles of water = pwater

Moles of organic material porganic material

where the vapor pressure of water and the organic material are pwater and porganic
material, respectively. Given that the partial pressure of the organic material then
must be equal to 760 – pwater. Therefore the weight of water required per gram for
the distillation of an organic material is

Wt. of water per = 18 x pwater

g of organic material MW of organic material x (760 – pwater)

For example, using Table 1, we can calculate the amount of water required to
steam distill nitrobenzene (MW 123.11), which forms an azeotropic mixture with
water at 99 oC. Considering that nitrobenzene has a boiling point of 210 oC at 760
mmHg, is steam distillation an improvement for purification of nitrobenzene?

There is one more thing to consider, the density difference. You know that “like
dissolves like” so alcohols (R-OH) are miscible in water but hydrocarbons are
not. Normally, the hydrocarbons have a density less than water so they float on
the top of the water layer. On the other hand, the general rule is that halogenated
hydrocarbons (like chloroform, CHCl3, or dichloromethane, CH2Cl2) have
densities greater than that of water. This information is something to keep in
mind when you are measuring the volumes of water and toluene in this
experiment, as well as later for other experiments.

Distillation 3
Experiment

Caution. Boiling stones or sticks should never be added to hot solutions. When
performing a distillation, do not heat any flask until dryness because it is
difficulty to clean and may cause other dangerous situations. You may have
experienced this situation if you have heated water on your stove until all the
water has evaporated.

Before starting your experiment, please ask your TA to give you the atmospheric
pressure for the room you are in.

Steam distillation of a toluene-benzil mixture

O O
CH 3

toluene benzil
MW 92.14 MW 210.23

Add 10 mL of the toluene-benzil solution and a boiling chip to 20 mL of water in

a 50-mL round-bottomed flask (your starting or distilling flask flask). Set up your
distillation for a simple distillation similar to the one depicted in Figure 11.6 on
pg 134 of your lab textbook (J.R. Mohrig, C.N. Hammond, and P.F. Schatz, pg
134). When the temperature of the distillation remains constant (the azeotrope),
collect about (but not more than) 10 mL of the distillate, which is the solution
being distilled into the receiver flask. Record this temperature in your lab
notebook. Replace the receiver flask with a new one. Transfer the collected
distillate from the first receiver flask to a graduated cylinder, and record the
volumes of water and toluene from their separation (two layers) in the graduated
cylinder. Determine the weight of water per gram of toluene. Does this result
compare to the theoretical value determined from the vapor pressure of water its
azeotrope temperature?

Continue the distillation until the distillate becomes clear. At that point, all of the
toluene will be distilled from the starting to the receiver flask. Cool the starting
flask in ice water and collect the resulting solid (the benzil) using vacuum
filtration. Record the amount of recovered benzil.

Distillation 4