Fractional Distillations of Esters
Discussion
Distillation is the separating of mixtures by heating s solution to a boil and then condensing the vapors above the boiling liquid. There are two types of distillation which are simple distillation and fractional distillation. Simple distillation is performed if substances have extremely different vapor pressures. Fractional distillation was utilized in the previous experiment due to the mixture of compounds having similar boiling points. Fractional distillation utilizes a fractional column between the distilling flask and condenser. The column is packed with a material that creates a larger surface area for heat exchange between the ascending vapor and the descending liquid. The result is the fractional column allowing several simple distillations, condensations and vaporations to occur over its lengths. Theoretical plates are the term for each cycle of condensation and evaporation. The separations between the compounds in a mixture depend on the quantity of theoretical plates.
Furthermore, gas chromatography and thin layer chromatography are two techniques of separating two or more compounds. Gas chromatography is expensive and can separate mixtures containing hundreds of compounds. Gas Chromatography can also detect components in small amounts such as 10^-6 to 10^-15 g. Its mobile phase is a gas and its stationary phase is a nonpolar polymer. Thin layer chromatography is a fast inexpensive technique, but can only detect material as little as 10^-9 g. Thin layer chromatography stationary phase is a polar solid adsorbent and the mobile phase is one or a combination of solvents. The two techniques also differ in detectors. In thin layer chromatography human eyes detect the presence of colerless compounds on a TLC plate. In gas chromatography there are electronic detectors that can include conductivity detectors, flame ionization detectors, electron capture detectors and mass spectrometer detectors.
The results for fractional 1 were 100% ethyl acetate, 100% butyl acetate in fraction 4 and 100% butyl acetate in fraction 5. The results