Question

You are hard at work separating diethyl ether and toluene by simple distillation. Your lab partner unfortunately spills some sodium chloride in the distillation mixture. Is simple distillation still appropriate or should you switch to fractional distillation? Explain.

Answer 1

ingeneral separating diethyl ether and tolune is can be doen by normal distillation

because boiling point difference of these solvents is huge

boiling point of diethyl ether is 35 ºC

boiling point of toluene is 111 ºC

difference in boiling point is huge

now when you add NaCl to this

it doesnt dissolve in either of the solvent

it is completely ionic both solvents are covalent

so answer is

we can distille as usuall

this NaCl will go and settle down it doesnt affect the boiling points of the liquid and distillation.