Question

Compound x is twice as soluble in diethyl ether as it is ethanol and is only sparingly soluble in water. compound y is soluble in water and etanol, but only sparingly soluble diethyl ether. you are given a solid mixture of x and y. briefly describe how you would separate x and y using liquid-liquid extraction?

Answer 1

The question has mentioned three solvents: water, ethanol, and diethyl ether. Water is miscible with ethanol but not diethyl ether. As a result, it would be possible to separate a mixture of water and diethyl ether with a separatory funnel but not a mixture of water and ethanol using such techniques.

Substance X dissolves well in diethyl ether but not in water; substance Y dissolves well in water but not in diethyl ether. As a result, the two components of this mixture would end up in different layers when dissolved in a mixture of water and diethyl ether- which separate into two layers itself. One would expect to find

• a solution mostly of substance X in the diethyl ether layer, and
• a solution mostly of substance Y in the water layer.

Given the fact that diethyl ether has a density less than that of water ($0.713 \; \text{g} \cdot \text{ml}^{-1}$ as opposed to $1.00 \; \text{g} \cdot \text{ml}^{-1}$,) it would form the upper layer of its mixture with water. Separate the mixture with a separatory funnel. The question stated that both X and Y are under the solid state while the two solvents are both liquidsm implying that the boiling points of both species are higher than that of their respective solvent. Therefore heat the solutions till all solvent had evaporated to obtain X and Y.