Dhash Joshi, Section 25, J.D.

Northrup, September 25h 2014, October

2nd 2014, Experiment 3B: Fractional Semimicroscale Distillation:
Separation of Hexane and Toluene
Objective: To separate a binary liquid mixture composed of liquids
having boiling points that are relatively far apart. Gain
semimicrodistillation skills.
Experimental Procedure: The procedure was followed as described
in Mayo, pages 133-135, with the modifications listed in the posted
Blackboard document. Additional modifications to the procedure
included the following:
-

Use 1.5mL of each component

Add a thermometer on top of Clausen head
Distillation apparatus MUST be seated with
O rings
You will not use refractive index. Instead a
gas chromatography.
You will work in pairs to obtain GC data for 2
of the three distillation fractions.
Each student will contribute one fraction for
analysis.
If fraction 3 is not obtained then use fraction
2.

Reaction Scheme:

Data and Results:

Compound
Hexane

Amount (mL)
1.5

Boiling point (Celsius)

69

Toluene

1.5

First Distillation
Fraction
Temp.
Collected Range
(Celsius)
1
69-90
2

93-105

105

Peak
1
2
1
2
1
2

111

GC
Retention
Time
(min)
3.0
6.5
2.1
3.8

Peak Area
(mm^2)

Identity of
Peak

222
51

Hexane

.81
311.4

Toluene

Observations:
Calculations:

Gentle boil began at 50 degrees Celsius

First fraction taken at 69-90 degrees Celsius
I can see the liquid being evaporated to the top
chamber.
2nd fraction taken at 93-105 degrees Celsius.
3rd fraction taken at 105 degrees Celsius.

Questions:
1.

2.

I identified peak 1 as Hexane and peak 2 as Toluene

because Hexane is supposed to elute first due to the
boiling point. Peak 2 was identified as Toluene because it
elutes last due to its boiling point.
The peak areas on the gas chromatography are able to
help us quantify the compound during the distillation.

3.
a. For each fraction the peak areas and their identities tell
us how pure of substance we retrieved for each
compound (Hexane and Toluene). Comparing the 1st and
3rd fractions together we can see that the Toluene has a
higher mole fraction because it has a much larger peak
area.
b. Yes because I would expect there to be no hexane left to
be extracted by the time I reached to 105 degrees
Celsius.
4.

5.

a. The Gas chromatogram for the redistillation of fraction 1

would have had a much larger peak area because the
point of redistillation is to increase the purity of the
substance and this means a higher mole fraction.
b. I would think the same thing would happen because it
would increase the purity of fraction 3 as well.
Distillation one did not give 2 pure fractions because
during the initial distillation the temperature continues to
drop and rise which causes the Hexane to stay at the
bottom and when we wait for the temperature to rise to
extract the Toluene there is probably still some Hexane in
the fraction. One method to fix this would be to redistill the
fractions to ensure that each fraction is purely one
compound only.

Works Cited:
1. Mayo, D. W.; Pike, R. M.; Forbes, D. C. Microscale
Organic Laboratory
with Multistep and Multiscale
Syntheses, 5th ed.; John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 2011; pp
141-147.
2. Modifications for Experiment 3B: Fractional
Semimicroscale Distillation: Separation of Hexane and
Toluene, Blackboard document.