Question

separation of benzoic acid and napthalene by extraction lab

2. You are given a two-phase system containing an aqueous layer and an organic layer, but you don't know which is which, nor do you know the identity of the organic solvent. How could you determine which layer is the aqueous layer?

Answer 1

2) The simple test to check the aqueous layer, is to add some drops of water into the two phase system and check with which layer it is getting mixed. The layer in which water droplets are getting mixed is your aqueous layer.

The separation of benzoic acid from naphthalene by extraction is shown in the flow chart below,

но Mkture in ether 10% N aOH solution Organic layer Aque ous layer Na O naphthaliene 10% HCI но Berzoic acid