Pragnje - 13-7-2017 at 04:59
I have on my hand 1 gallon of this azeotrope and i wonder how could i separate n-butanol from toluene?
Geocachmaster - 13-7-2017 at 08:07
BP in degrees C of:
N-Butanol/toluene azeotrope- 105.6
Toluene/water azeotrope- 84.1
N-Butanol/water azeotrope- 92.4
I couldn't find any information of a ternary azeotrope.
You could add the appropriate amount of water and fractionally distill the mixture. Toluene and water coming off first, then
n-butanol and water. Separation of the two products from water is not difficult. You would need a good column though, 6 degrees isn't much.
You could also wash the stuff you have with a bunch of water, n-butanol is about 140x more soluble than toluene. This would take a huge amount of
water though (the n-butanol has around the solubility of diethyl ether and wants to stick with the toluene), and the resulting mixture would be hard
to work with given the large volume. This is probably a bad method.
In future please supply as much information as possible, and tell about any research you have already done. Most of us just use google and have access
to exactly the same amount of information as you do. Also these kind of questions belong in beginnings or the short questions thread.