Question

Why was the methylene chloride layer washed with sodium bicarbonate in the procedure for preparing camphor?

is it to remove acid which was added in the starting process.

Answer 1

You don't list the procedure used but your answer probably is correct since NaHCO3 will neutralize any acid remaining after the reaction.

Answer 2

the procedure was extraction of Camphor from experiment "An oxidation-reduction scheme Borneol,camphor and Isoborneol.

Answer 3

I looked up the oxidation of isoborneol on the Internet and that procedure used glacial acetic acid. The extracted layer was washed with NaHCO3 to remove the excess acetic acid.

Answer 4

NaHCO3 solutions are used to remove acid and base soluble compounds from organic layers. Not know thr specifics of the lab, its hard to say for certain, but my guess would be that it was to remove traces of acid used in the prep.