Question

The two immiscible layers in an extraction are water and diethyl ether. Which compound would you expect to be the upper layer?

Answer 1

As we know that, water is a polar solvent and diethyl ether is a non-polar solvent. Density of diethyl ether is less than the density of water. So, during the extraction diethyl ether solvent will be in upper layer of the separating funnel (due to lesser density of the diethyl ether) and water solvent will be in below layer of the separating funnel (due to higher density of water). Since, polar molecules dissolve in the polar solvent like water and non-polar molecules dissolve in the non-polar solvent like diethyl ether.

So, from the above conclusion, the compound which will be in the upper layer, called as the non-polar compound then only it can miscible into the upper layer which is the diethyl ether (non-polar miscible in non-polar). On the other hand polar compound will be in the below layer which is the water (polar miscible in polar)