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Distillation Lab Report

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7. Discussion: The main objective of the distillation lab was to identify the composition of an unknown binary solution. The only known component is that the boiling point of the two components were at least 40˚C apart in boiling points. Due to the difference in boiling points, fractional distillation would be an easy way to determine the identity of each component of the binary solution. In the experiment, 30mL of the unknown binary solution was ran through the fractional distillation apparatus. As the solution boiled, gas from the unknown solution ran through the column, which had a temperature gradient to allow rapid and repeated distillations, and one of the components were isolated. By recording the temperature and amount of …show more content…

By comparing the retention times to a list of unknowns, the possible identity of each component determined by fractional distillation would hopefully be verified by GC. GC also give quantitative date. At each retention time, there would be a peak with an area under the curve which will be dependent on the concentration of each component. Since there are three samples to run through GC, different peak areas for each component would be seen in each GC data. By adding up the peak areas for each peak with similar retention time for each sample, a volume of each component was determined. Dividing the volume of each component by the total amount (sum of each component), a fraction of each component was determined. This fraction would be the amount of each component in the unknown binary solution. 8. Data & Results: Distillation Graph By recording the temperature and distillate obtained during fractional distillation, a graph was plotted. At each point on the graph where temperature plateaus, a boiling point of a component of the unknown binary solution was reached. The graph obtained was ideal because two boiling points were determined to be around 82˚C and 124˚C. By comparing the boiling points to the list of known solvents, the first component was identified to be cyclohexane with

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