The experiment is extraction of liquids, we had a mixture of triphenylmethanol a

Question

The experiment is extraction of liquids, we had a mixture of triphenylmethanol and 4-nitrophenol..

additional information : ( after obtaining the pure solid after rotroevaporation, 10% of NaOH was added to each solid to test the effeciancy of extraction. one of them turned yellow while the other one barely turned yellow, prof. said the one that barely showed a yellow color had an effieciency of extraction 1/5 , while the other one is 5/5)..

can somebody explain this point as well please. thanks

A) Provide at least three explanations for not obtaining a 100% recovered yield of the components of the mixture.

B) Did you completely separate p-nitrophenol and triphenylmethanol? Explain your reasoning.

Explanation / Answer

Add sodium hydroxide aqueous solution. The base depronates the acidic para-nitrophenol and at this point, the depronated para-nitrophenol dissolved mostly in water, or more precisely, the sodium hydroxide solution, which is the bottom layer. After the aqueous solution is drained out, the ether layer only contain one compound, the neutral triphenylmethanol. The water layer has the depronated phenol and it will become dissolving more in ether after it is acidified by hydrochloric acid. The un-depronate, or the original para-nitrophenol can be extracted out by ether from the water now.

1)Some product might have been lost due to inefficiency in handling.

2) 100% is not possible bc you are talking about a mixture of compound so how do you say one has completed and other is not some may remain unreacted

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse T
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.