Question

For solventless hydrogenation Organic Chemistry Lab:

A: The experiment title claims that this reaction is green because the reaction is solventless. Do you think the fact that we used hexane in the filtration invalidates this claim? How could we make this experiment more green?

B: Assuming your yield is not 100%, where do you think the biggest losses occurred in this experiment?  

Answer 1

a)

This depends on the disposing of material, many times very hazard material to the environment cna be treated and converted to a non-hazard material, i.e. for hexane, combustion will be an example

burning hexane used will free CO2 and H2O gases, which are not that dangerous for health and environment.

Therefore, this is ambiguous, since we do not know how hexane will be disposed, therefore, assume this is not "green"

B

If you are using Hexane, this could be due to the hydrolysis of hexane... Avoid leaving hexane during long periods of time, since it will "lower " its extraction potential