Consider 15 mL of an aqueous solution containing 2.0 g of an organic solute. If the distribution coefficient for the solute between ether and water is 20, calculate the percent of the compound that can be recovered with a single extraction with 13.9 mL of ether

Answer 1

Let x = grams in organic layer,
then 2-x = grams in water layer.

Kd = 20
Kd = g/mL in organic layer/g/mL in aq layer.
Then organic layer = xgrams/13.9 mL
aq layer = (2-x)grams/15 mL.