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Gas Chromatography Lab

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Simple Distillation and Gas Chromatography The objective of the lab was to purify compounds that can be turned into gas at a reasonable temperature without using decomposition. Gas chromatography was also used to identify the proportions of the volatile compound in the different samples. The mixture of hexane and octane was assigned to me and my partner. The apparatus for simple distillation was assemble using a thermocouple, air condenser, distillation head, metal keck clamps, and a conical reaction vial. The joints of the glassware were greased before assembly. Four boiling chips were placed in the conical ration vial before it was assembled. After being assigned a mixture, 3.5 mL of the mixture was put into a reaction vial. The apparatus …show more content…

There was no distillate in the distillation head after 20 minutes on the setting of 40 so the Variac transformer was turned to 45. The first fraction was collected at 55.6°C. The ratio of hexane to octane was 87.437% to 12.563%. The second fraction was collected between 47.3°C and 40.5°C. 88.429% to 11.571% was the ratio of hexane to octane for this fraction. The third fraction was collected at 30.6°C, and the ratio of hexane to octane was 94.957% to 5.043%. The contents of the conical reaction vial were placed in a fourth vial and a chromatogram was obtained for it. The ration of hexane to octane was 7.501% to 92.499%. During the collection of the three fractions, a piece of the glass pipet broke off into the distillation head. The results of the experiment could have been incorrect because the glassware was not properly cleaned. The distillate also could have collected too fast which would have lowered the separations efficiency. From this information, infer that hexane has a lower boiling point than octane because most of the distillate was hexane. The majority of what was left in the conical reaction vial was octane because the temperature was not hot enough to turn it into a gas to go into the distillation

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