Chemgineer - 26-5-2021 at 14:36
I produced some quite concentrated acetic acid by reacting sodium acetate with sodium bisulphate and condensing the gas into a beaker. It is
definitely quite concentrated, the smell hurts the nose!
I put it in the fridge to see if it would easily freeze solid however it stayed a liquid so I must have some traces of water in the solution.
Can I boil this solution down to release the aziotrope of acetic acid and water leaving eventually pure acetic acid?
clearly_not_atara - 26-5-2021 at 14:53
Sodium bisulfate is hygroscopic and forms a monohydrate. This might explain your observations. I think there are some (insoluble) salts you can use to
dehydrate GAA the last-little-bit, but I can't remember which. Boiling likely works, but you could lose a fraction of your acetic acid (it is
zeotropic).
UC235 - 26-5-2021 at 15:25
Acetic acid does not form an azeotrope, so that's a non-option.