Question

Experiment Organic Chemistry 1

- When should you use extraction?

- What are the four steps of extraction? What is the purpose of each step?

(We did extraction of caffeine, but question applies to any)

Answer 1

Extraction process is a separation technique which is use to separate a desired compound from its matrix.

There are two types of extraction -

1. Liquid-liquid extraction - this uses two I'm miscible liquid to separate a compound which is soluble in one liquid and not in the other.

2. Solid phase extraction - this uses various chemical reaction to extract the compound.

The steps involved in the extraction usually depends on the nature of the compound that you have chosen.

Usually, the compound is extracted with a suitable solvent, then is dried using an anhydrous salt and finally the solvent is evaporated.