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Author: Subject: water + ethanol + benzene azeotrope
vmelkon
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[*] posted on 25-11-2011 at 05:53
water + ethanol + benzene azeotrope


I have produced some ethanol using sugar + yeast method.
I have done distillation and measured the molarity to be 59.5% ethanol (79% by wt).

I had seen on a youtube video (the one from Nothingham University, the prof with the big white hair) that benzene could be used to purify it to a anhydrous state.

That information is difficult to track down for a home chemist like me.

I found this which mentions it vaguely but it doesn't make sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_purification

I'm suppose to add benzene (how much?)
and distill it. That will drive off the water+ benzene as gas???
How can water with a bp 100 îC be driven off as gas?

[Edited on 25-11-2011 by vmelkon]
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Neil
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[*] posted on 25-11-2011 at 07:01


Read;

http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/vogel_practi...


As far as wiki goes- the neat thing about wiki is that it links everything, follow the white rabbit.


From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_purification

|
\/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azeotrope

|
\/

then go back to the first article and read;

"The ethanol-water azeotrope can be broken by the addition of a small quantity of benzene or cyclohexane. Benzene, ethanol, and water form a ternary azeotrope with a boiling point of 64.9 °C. Since this azeotrope is more volatile than the ethanol-water azeotrope, it can be fractionally distilled out of the ethanol-water mixture, extracting essentially all of the water in the process."
With much grokking and goodness.
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woelen
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28-11-2011 at 00:01

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