[Barbu]

I have four compounds dissolved in 100 ml of ethanol. In the solution there are 2 g of each compound. The solubilities in water, alcohol and diethyl ether are in the table attached (solubilidad = solubility, agua = water, éter etílico = diethyl ether, p.f. = melting point, p. eb. = boiling point).

I have to show in a flow chart how to separate the four compounds.

I want to get them in the diethyl ether layer, because in that case I know how to make the flow chart. The problem is that two of the compounds are 100% soluble in alcohol and in diethyl ether and, since water and alcohol are miscibles, I can’t make an extraction with an aqueous phase.

[Dan]

The ethanol can be removed on a rotary evaporator and the residue dissolved in ether.

You can still do the extraction with alcohol present - you will still get two phases if you add enough water - but the alcohol will change the solvating properties of both phases compared to the table you have.

Faced with this task in a laboratory, I would remove the alcohol first.

[Barbu]

Thanks!!