Question

What is the role of first adding ether and then methanol in an Extraction and Recrystallization Organic Chemistry lab?

Answer 1

Organic compounds generally soluble in organic solvents like ether, lower molecular weight alcohols. Since methanol is soluble in water. If we use first methanol then organic compound dissolves in methanol and goes to water along with methanol. If we first add ether then our organic comound comes to ether layer and is very easy to seperate since ether is less denser than water, it floats on aqueous layer, but as early as possible we have to seperate the layers why because ether will evaporate easily due to low boiling point temperature.

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