Steam Distillation :: essays research papers

Steam DistillationPurpose To use steam distillation to purify heat sensitive, natural products, like indispensable oils.ProcedurePlease refer toWilliamson, Macroscale &Microscale Organic Experiments 4th Ed., pgs.98-109 ResultsTable 1.1 Steam distillationDrop (every third drop)Temperature (C)Addition of 0.5 mL water1100.3 pee added2100.53100.5Water added4100.6Water added5100.66100.6Water added7100.68100.6Water added9100.310100.6Observations The residue was incomprehensible during distillation. This indicated that it was wet. The water was added when the solution appeared to be getting low in volume.Table 1.2 Recovery of organic materialObject being weighedweighting in gramsWeight of empty, clean test tube6.446 gWeight of clean test tube with spearmint oil6.635 gWeight of spearmint oil0.189 gTable 1.3 IR SpectroscopyFrequencyCorresponding Functional Group3083.81C-H2923.91C-H1674.33C=OConclusionIn this experiment, the process of steam distillation was utilize to purify a natural pr oduct, (the essential oil of spearmint). This phenomenon works because when two immiscible liquids are distilled, the boiling omen of the mixture is below the boiling point of the both gauzy compounds. Since water has a significantly lower boiling point than spearmint, a much greater proportion of water molecules was vaporizing at every time during the distillation. Even though the components of spearmint oil have low vapor pressure, they are volatile enough to vaporize to some extent and a small amount will lifted off with the water molecules. This boiling will occur when the independent internal vapor pressures are equal to 760 torr, which is the impertinent vapor pressure. It is noted that steam distillation, unlike regular distillation, it does not follow Raoults Law. After steam distillation was completed, the essential oil was recovered and a thin layer chromatography was conducted. When this TLC was conducted, there was one spot of pure essential oil and one of the distill ed and recovered essential oil. The results indicated that the distilled, recovered oil was pure because it came out as a single spot, level with that of the pure oil. The infrared spectroscopy was performed next. IR spectroscopy is used to identify the functional by stretchability and bonding frequencies of bonds. The peaks correspond to the functional groups.