Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Xylene/Toluene and Methanol

enkephalin - 18-7-2006 at 06:39

Would a fractional distillation be capable of removing a 4% methanol concentration from a mix of xylene/toluene? I take it washing the mix with water, and then drying the solvent probably wouldnt.

Thanks,

Enkephalin

Vitus_Verdegast - 18-7-2006 at 07:53

? Yes it would. Wash multiple times with water and dry

enkephalin - 18-7-2006 at 10:29

Thanks for the reply. It seems the methanol in the mix allowed a fair bit of water to partition into the solvent layer as its gone a milky white colour. On drying, the milky colour disappears. Would this really have removed the methanol as well though? I doubt it.

[Edited on 18-7-2006 by enkephalin]

neutrino - 18-7-2006 at 15:35

Didn't you wash the methanol out?

You could always take the methanol out with anhydrous calcium chloride. It forms a complex with methanol. There was a thread around here a few weeks back on these complexes, search around.