Question

I recently did an experiment where I mixed 2.11 ml of water, 2.01 ml of ethyl acetate and 0.059 g of vanillyn alcohol. When I did the theoretical mass calculation I got 0.0335g, but when I did the experiment and evaporated off the organic layer, I got 0.044g of product. Could someone please explain why I would have gotten more than what my theoretical mass would be? Could this have occurred from evaporating it too long or maybe during extraction, I got some of the water in the solution?

Answer 1

Yes . That happens when you do not have purely dried product, when you have impurity in your product .  

I think your product is not fully dried and may have water due to which mass is higher than expectations. If you dry it under vacuum then you would be able to see the theoretical situation.

Again if you have impurity in your product then also mass can be high. You should purify the product by column chromatography. Then you would be able to match the theoretical mass.