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Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: tealve on October 31, 2021, 12:57:14 AM

Title: Extraction step for synthesis of phenacetin
Post by: tealve on October 31, 2021, 12:57:14 AM
Hi, I'm very confused on how to write a flow chart for the extraction step of phenacetin synthesis. So we first did a reflux for 1 hour where we added Acetaminophen, ethyl iodide, butanone, and K2CO3. Then we do extraction using dichromomethane (DCM) as the solvent. So I know that we initially are going to have Acetaminophen, ethyl iodide, phenacetin and butanone in the solution (after filtering out all the solid). What I don't understand is what exactly going in the aqueous and the organic layer at each step.

We first added 30ml DCM and 20ml water. Then we extracted aqueous layer with (2 x 10ml) DCM.
Then we washed the combined organic layer with NaOH, H2O and NaCl brine solution.

 
Title: Re: Extraction step for synthesis of phenacetin
Post by: rolnor on October 31, 2021, 05:17:13 AM
Do you have any suggestion? Why does one wash with NaOH?