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Acid-Base Extraction Lab Report

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Introduction Acid-base extraction is a very useful technique in organic chemistry. It is used to separate organic compounds from each other. The idea is that most of organic compounds will be more soluble in organic solvents than they are in water (1). The extraction, in its most basic form, will result in unequal distribution of solute between two immiscible (not forming one mixture when added together) solvents (2). Since both of the solvents are immiscible, two separate layers will be formed inside of the separatory funnel (2). Once the two layers have been separated, it is easy to draw off the bottom layer by opening the bottom of the separatory funnel and letting it drain out until the entire lower layer has left the funnel. Being able to determine the identities of the layers is very important in ensuring the appropriate treatment to each liquid after being separated out. It’s important to know that the more dense liquid will be on the bottom of the separatory funnel (2). For this reason, diethyl ether and ethyl acetate are usually used for extraction because both are less dense than the dilute solutions (3). The name acid-base extraction comes from the idea that organic compounds are separate based on their acid-base properties (1). An example of an acid-base extraction based on acid-base properties would be a separation of a mixture containing an organic acid, a base and a neutral compound (2). First, an organic acid will react with a base to

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