vmelkon - 25-11-2011 at 05:53
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]
Neil - 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.