As a result of the new reaction, the products will be sodium;pent-1-ene, and two molecules of water, if tert-butyl methyl ether is combined with NaOH. In the case of the experiment, tert-amyl chloride came out and was also a water molecule. From the point of view of the goals of the experiment, which consisted of the extraction of a substance from one phase of the solvent by another solvent, these two reactions do not make a difference since, in the end, the oxygen atom is separated from the ether into the water and a more potent molecule of either sodium or chlorine is added. In addition, substituting a substance affects solubility, which, according to the K coefficient, can change the amount of the substance dissolved in the total. Chlorine has better solubility in ethers; hence the separation factor of chlorine will be higher, and therefore more substance will be obtained as a result of the reaction compared to sodium (Schwaller et al., 2021). Accordingly, the substitution will only matter in relation to the amount of substance obtained for the overall results.
Without changing the chemical reaction with another element, there is a reliable way to increase the extraction’s efficiency or achieve more of the separated substance. This approach involves the extraction of not one large portion of the solvent but numerous reactions in small portions. As a rule, at the third iteration of the mass reduced by a factor of three, an effect is achieved that exceeds the same, but in a large portion in one iteration (Schwaller et al., 2021). Otherwise, other ways to improve extraction efficiency are more specific to specific reaction examples or involve changing the solvent.
Differences in density determine the separation of the aqueous and organic layers. There are several methods for determining the nature of a layer if, as a result of the reaction, the experimenter is unsure. First, it is possible to add water through a syringe into the separating funnel: drops of water will disappear in the top layer if it is aqueous or fall through the top to the bottom layer if the top is organic. Secondly, if the volumes of substances used in the reaction are known in advance, they can be visually and logically estimated from the layer’s size. In this case, the shape of the separating funnel can serve as a source of errors, distorting volumes’ visual assessment.
Sodium sulfate should be used for this reaction for a variety of reasons. First, potassium carbonate is alkaline and is more effective with amines. Its use is contraindicated with acids, as this substance reacts with them (Drying Agents, 2016). Second, sodium sulfate is more effective with ether solutions, although it absorbs alcohol and has a slow reaction rate (Drying Agents, 2016). In any case, when choosing between these two substances, it is evident that it is necessary to use sodium sulfate as a drying agent in the reaction with ether.
Only the most polar solvents can almost entirely remove water from the layers. Before adding the drying agent, one should get rid of water droplets in the organic layer to achieve the best efficiency. Reagents can be sensitive to water, slowing down the reaction’s speed, quality, and yield (Drying Agents, 2016). In this case, it is necessary to use the strongest drying agents: calcium hydride, sodium metal, or lithium aluminum hydride, which destroy water in the solvent (Drying Agents, 2016). However, despite their relative reactivity, care must be taken when using these substances.
Thus, in this work, the basics and properties of the extraction process were studied, including possible options for improving the efficiency of this reaction. The examples were considered water and organic layers, the determinants of separation and the nature of each. Finally, the features of the various drying agents having characteristics important for the removal of water from the organic level have been explained, as well as the specific classification for these purposes.
References
Drying Agents.(2016).
Schwaller, P., Hoover, B., Reymond, J. L., Strobelt, H., & Laino, T. (2021). Extraction of organic chemistry grammar from unsupervised learning of chemical reactions. Science Advances, 7(15), eabe4166.