Liquid-Liquid Extraction: Fun Facts and More!

Are you ready to dive into the world of liquid-liquid extraction?

Let's explore some interesting data related to solute distribution ratio and extraction efficiency!

Let's uncover the mysteries behind liquid-liquid extraction!

Have you ever wondered what the solute's distribution ratio between water and toluene is?

If we extract 20.00 mL of an aqueous solution containing the solute with 10.00 mL of toluene, what would be the extraction efficiency?

And how many extractions do we need to recover 99.9% of the solute?

Extraction can be fascinating, especially when we learn about the distribution ratio of solutes between different phases and the efficiency of the extraction process. In a fun experiment, 1.235 g of a solute with a molar mass of 117.3 g/mol was dissolved in 10.00 mL of water.

After extracting with 5.00 mL of toluene, 0.889 g of the solute was recovered in the organic phase. Exciting, right?

(a) The solute's distribution ratio between water and toluene is calculated as 1.44!

(b) The extraction efficiency after a single extraction is a whopping 72% - impressive!

(c) To achieve 99.9% recovery of the solute, we would need to perform 7 extractions. How cool is that?