The goal of this experiment was to separate Toluene and Hexane by distillation and gas chromatography based on their difference in boiling points. The boiling point of hexane is 69 degrees Celsius and the boiling point of toluene is 110 degrees Celsius. Three fractions were collected for both simple and fractional distillation. The first fraction was hexane since it had the lower boiling point. The second fraction was a mixture of toluene and hexane. The third fraction was toluene since it had the high boiling point of 110 degrees Celsius. Gas chromatography was also preformed on each of the fractions from simple and fractional distillation. In the gas chromatography process, the compounds are carried through a stationary phase, and pushed …show more content…
The distillation procedure is initiated by gradually heating the mixture until it reaches the temperature of the liquid with the lower boiling point. This liquid then turns into a vapor and leaves to mixture and is collected by the set up apparatus. In fractional distillation a vigreux column is used. This provides for surface area for condensation to occur. At each condensation event the vapor is enriched in the low boiling point component and the liquid is enriched in the high boiling point component. The surfaces where condensation occurs are called theoretical plates. Separation is more efficient when there are more theoretical plates. Therefore, fractional distillation is more efficient in separating than simple distillation. Another new technique was gas chromatography. Gas chromatography is used to separate volatile components of a mixture. First, a small amount is draw up into a syringe and the contents of the syringe are placed into a hot injector pot of the gas chromatograph. The components of the mixture evaporate into the gas phase inside the injector. A carrier gas flows through the injected and pushed the