Introduction

Pure liquids generally boil at a constant temperature or over a narrow temperature range (the
total pressure in the system must remain constant). The pressure of 760 torr (1 atm) is the
pressure for the normal boiling point of the liquid. The boiling point of a liquid is affected by the
presence of volatile and nonvolatile impurities, and most of the mixtures of liquids boil over a
wide range.
Simple distillation is used to separate the distillates from less-volatile substances that remain as
pot residue at the completion of the distillation. To be able to separate the volatile substances, the
differences in the boiling point must be greater than 40-50C. In a homogenous solution with
volatile and nonvolatile components, the nonvolatile impurity will reduce the vapor pressure of
the volatile component. This happens because it lowers the concentration of the volatile
component in the liquid phase. If there is water present along with the nonvolatile impurity, then
the head temperature of the distillation will be the same as the one for pure water because the
water condensing on the thermometer bulb will remain uncontaminated by the nonvolatile
impurity; however, the pot temperature will be elevated because of the decreased vapor pressure
of the solution. The nonvolatile impurity reduces the vapor pressure at any temperature by a
constant amount in accord to Raoults Law. This law is only applicable to ideal solutions-which
are defined as those in which the interactions between like molecules are the same as those
between unlike molecules.
Fractional distillation is normally used to obtain each volatile component in pure form. In
fractional distillation at any given temperature, the vapor pressure is richer in the more volatile
component than its boiling liquid (where the vapor is in equilibrium). This phenomenon allows
us to use fractional distillation. The forces of attraction between the molecules of the two
components are weaker than the ones between the molecules of each individual component. The
vapor pressure of the solution is greater than that of the pure, more volatile component (for a
particular range of the compositions of two liquids). The head temperature should rise to the
normal boiling point of the more volatile compound, and it should remain there until the
component is mostly removed. The head temperature should then drop. When additional heat is
provided to the still pot, the less volatile component should begin to distill, and then the boiling
point should rise to the boiling point of the second component.

There are three types of distillation: steam, simple, and fractional. Simple distillation is useful for
isolating a pure liquid from other substances that are not volatile. The boiling points of each pure
substance must be greater than 40-50C for this distillation to work. Steam distillation is used for
the separation and purification of volatile organic compounds that are immiscible in with water.
Unlike simple distillation, this technique cant be used for substances that decompose on
prolonged contact with steam or hot water, that react with water, that have a vapor pressure of 5
torr, or are less than 100C. If the volatile compounds cant be separated by simple distillation,
then fractional distillation can be performed. This usually happens when the difference in boiling
points is too small to perform simple distillation, but the temperature ranges is still between 2030C. Fractional distillation can also be performed when the mixtures boiling point is lower than
the boiling temperature of either the pure compound.
Steam distillation is usually used for separating and purifying moderately volatile liquids and
solid organic compounds that are insoluble or nearly soluble in water from nonvolatile
compounds.
Data and Observations
Simple distillation of Cyclohexane: At 68C the compounds started distilling, and the finishing
temperature was around 76C.
Steam distillation Lemon Grass Oil Temperature: 98C
Simple distillation Lemon Grass Oil Temperature: 35C
Compound

Weight of

Weight of

Molecula

Amount of Melting

Melting

Name and

the

the Final

r Weight

moles of

Point

Point

Structure

Starting

Product in

of the

the

Range of

Range of

Product in

Grams

Product

product

Starting

the Final

6.7964 g

in g/mol
84.16

(final)
.0808

Material
NA

Product
NA

g/mol

moles

152.24

.00526

NA

NA

Cyclohexane

Citral Oil

Grams
7.78 g

1.95 g

.8002 g

g/mol

Results and Discussion

Simple Distillation of Cyclohexane
Simple distillation of cyclohexane showed that the observed boiling point was between 68C and
76C. The boiling point of cyclohexane in the catalogue is 80.74C. The cyclohexane that was
used in the experiment might have been affected by the lower barometric pressure of that day,
since the temperature was lower than the expected. The temperature in on the thermometer gives
us the boiling point for pure cyclohexane, and it does not reflect the mixture in the still pot. The
percent recovery of cyclohexane in this experiment was 87.4%. The refractive index of
cyclohexane from the experiment was 1.424 which is the same as the refractive index of pure
cyclohexane. This shows that simple distillation was successful because it was the right form of
distillation to use, since the refractive index matched pretty perfectly.
Steam Distillation of Lemon Grass Oil
In the process of steam distillation the temperature of co-distillation of the two immiscible
liquids was 98C. After the steam distillation took place the receiving flask contained more of
more volatile compound that the starting mixture did. The purpose of the extraction with diethyl
ether was to separate the organic and the inorganic layers because only organic compounds are
soluble in diethyl ether. Extraction is a technique based on the ability of a compound to dissolve
in certain liquid. Citral oil was the organic compound that was soluble in diethyl ether, and the
other inorganic impurities and water were not. Sodium sulfate was added to the organic layer to
absorb the excess water that was still left in the organic layer. The organic solution was then
decanted into a clean flask, and the simple distillation made the solvent evaporate from the
solution. The weight percentage of citral oil in lemon grass was calculated to be 41.04%.
Conclusion
Distillation is a good way to purify liquids. It is based on the differences of the boiling points in
the mixtures. It is very important to choose the right type of distillation based on the properties of
the mixture that we want to purify. In these two experiments simple and steam distillation were

used. The simple distillation was used to purify cyclohexane. The steam distillation was used to
separate citral oil from lemon grass oil-extraction was also used to get pure citral oil.

Works Cited:
Experimental Organic Chemistry 5th Edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclohexane