Simple Distillation Of Hexane Essay

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The purpose of the experiment was to use the method of simple distillation to separate hexane, heptane, and a mixture of the two compounds into three different samples. After separation, gas chromatography determined the proportions of the two volatile compounds in a given sample. After obtaining three fraction samples of hexane, heptane, and the mixture of the two into three separate vials, gas chromatography was performed to find the relative composition of each of the three samples. For the first vial containing pure hexane, a ratio of 66.26% hexane to 33.74% heptane was determined and had a boiling point range of 69.2-76.4°C during simple distillation. The second vial containing both hexane and heptane was determined to have the ratio of 40.15% hexane and 59.85% heptane and a boiling point range of 78.2-89.0°C. The third vial containing only heptane had a …show more content…

Therefore, the gas chromatography could not be performed to determine its composition. The ratio of the three samples obtained, were not all accurate. The first sample, of pure hexane should have had a ratio close to 100% hexane to 0% heptane. The second ratio should have been close to 50% hexane to 50% heptane and the third should have been the reverse of the first sample, with 0% hexane to 100% heptane. The boiling point of hexane is around 65°C and the boiling point of Heptane is 100°C. The first sample’s error could have occurred due to the late extraction of the sample. When the boiling point was reached, the extraction of the sample from the distillation vial should have occurred immediately, not doing so caused some of the vapors from heptane to be included into the first sample. This could be prevented next time by lowering the heat of the Variac transformer, which would have allowed for the heating of the compound to be slower than what it was

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