Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Analytical Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: winkler92 on February 23, 2009, 02:02:53 PM
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How would I go about isolating Sodium lauryl sulfate from a sample of shampoo? Would this be possible using materials that are accessible by a high school science lab?
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You can try this way :
- dry the matter
- extract all nonionic matters with organic solvent(s)
- sodium lauryl sulfate shouldn't be soluble in organic solvents
- So if you can do this way there will be probably still presence of sodium chloride with your isolated compound
Don't try extraction at acidic pH because lauryl sulfate will be hydrolyzed to give lauryl alcohol and sulfuric acid
I don't think you can do extraction using ions exchange resins because of the problem of stability at acidic pH
You can try extraction on silica gel column with appropriate solvents you have to find doing TLC.