BauArf56
Hazard to Self
Posts: 68
Registered: 22-8-2019
Location: between the moon and the sun
Member Is Offline
Mood: energetic
|
|
separating hexane and methyl acetate?
i discovered that a very common multipurpose solvent sold here is mainly made of hexane, n-hexane and methyl acetate. Now i want to separate them, as
they are both very useful (i want to use methyl acetate as a source of methanol). I thought about salting out MeOAc with calcium chloride, the same
method for separating ethyl acetate and alcohol. The problem is that hexane should be immiscible with water, so i don't know if it would work. Any
ideas?
|
|
|
DraconicAcid
International Hazard
Posts: 4278
Registered: 1-2-2013
Location: The tiniest college campus ever....
Member Is Offline
Mood: Semi-victorious.
|
|
You'd probably be better off extracting the methyl acetate with water- it's not very soluble, but it's much more soluble than hexanes.
Alternatively, you could hydrolyze the ester with sodium hydroxide while it's mixed with the hexanes, giving you methanol and hexanes, which would be
much easier to separate.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
|
|
|
Texium
Administrator
Posts: 4508
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
Member Is Offline
Mood: PhD candidate!
|
|
Hydrolyzing the methyl acetate would make it would make it much simpler to separate. Methanol and hexanes are actually immiscible on their own, and
having water present will just make that difference even greater!
|
|
|
BauArf56
Hazard to Self
Posts: 68
Registered: 22-8-2019
Location: between the moon and the sun
Member Is Offline
Mood: energetic
|
|
how can i tell if the windshield wiper fluid has methanol in it? It has a flammable label, but i have no idea for telling if it's just ethanol or
methanol.
|
|
|
Amos
International Hazard
Posts: 1406
Registered: 25-3-2014
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
Mood: No
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by BauArf56  | | how can i tell if the windshield wiper fluid has methanol in it? It has a flammable label, but i have no idea for telling if it's just ethanol or
methanol. |
You should search the name of the product online, and potentially any product identification numbers, and see if there's a corresponding MSDS or other
named safety sheet.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
