Separation Of Hexane And Toluene Lab Report

The purpose of this experiment was to use simple and fractional distillation to separate a mixture of hexane and toluene. In this experiment, the mixture of hexane and toluene in a bottom flask was heated with a boiling chip. Heating the mixture cause it to form vapor, and the condensation of vapor was collected as distillate. The temperature was recorded for every .5 mL collected in each set up and was later plotted to compare the difference between each distillation. The main difference between the set-up of these distillations is that fractional distillation apparatus included a fractioning column and copper coils. In addition, the first .5 mL of distillate collected in each distillation was run under a GC. As seen in GC analysis of the distillate collected via fractional distillation in figure 1 , the GC detected acetone, hexane, and toluene with retention rates of .602, .673, and .875 min respectively. This was similar to figure 2 using simple distillation. The retention rates of acetone, hexane, and tuolene were .602, .676, and .882 min respectively. Since hexane had a lower retention time than toluene, this means it eluted quicker. Moreover, the GC analysis provided the

The mixture evaporated too quickly as a result of the high jump in temperature, resulting only 5 mL of distillate collected. To each the 10 mL distillate collected via fractional distillation in the future, the heat input should adjust moderate to get about 15 to 20 drops per minute. This was not regulated too well because the heat input was set too high. In addition, the added insulations further made it easier to for the mixture to evaporate once the mixture started boiling. On the other hand, simple distillation was successful at collecting 10 mL of distillate. Both method is useful at separating the mixture, but simple distillation is easier to set