Question

Which of these three organic solvents, chloroform, benzene or diethyl ether, would be the best choice for extracting caffeine from an aqueous solution? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

My choice goes to chloroform will be the best organic solvent since it has a high partition coefficient means that it can dissolve more than 5 1/2 times as much caffeine as water in the same amount. The following chart could be useful to demonstrate the fact behind the choice of solvent to extract caffeine in an organic solvent.

Compound	Solubility of caffeine (grams/100 mL)	Partition Coefficient (compared to water)
Water	2.13 g/100 mL	n/a
Chloroform	12.34 g/100 mL	5.79
Benzene	1.16 g/100 mL	0.544
Diethyl ether	0.27 g/100 mL	0.126

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