Question

Hello! I was looking for some advice on my organic chemistry lab. We were supposed to separate and identify a solid mixed into a liquid. I found and have confirmed my liquid is acetone by distilling it out of the solid. The solid then turned into a whitish powder while in the round bottom flask.

The part that worries me is that I couldn t get the powder out easily, so I am worried it is impure. Is the distillation enough to get all the liquid out, or should I perform some other purification method or even redo the distillation? Thanks!

Answer 1

You might think so since acetone has such as low boiling point; however, I might be worried more that the flask was heated too much in trying to get all of the solvent out. You might try dissolving the solid again in a minimum of solvent, pouring the mixture into a beaker, then air dry or dry in an oven (low temperature) and that will allow you to get to the solid more easily.