I did a lab for Organic Chemistry
I did a simple distillation for an unknown and found that it boiled at 76 degrees.
I also found out that the unknown was ethanol since we knew what the 4 possibilities were and mine was closest to ethanol.
I also did a fractional distillation and only 4.0 ml were distilled off from the initial 25 ml solution.
I need to find beginning percent composition of the unknown/H2O assuming that the unknown doesn't form any azeotropes.
And also if it did form an azeotrope, calculate the beginning precent composition of the solution.
To find the beginning percent composition of the unknown (ethanol)/H2O solution, you first need to calculate the amount of ethanol and water in the 4.0 ml distillate obtained from the fractional distillation.
Assuming that the distillate collected is purely ethanol and water, you can determine the percentage of ethanol in the distillate by dividing the volume of ethanol by the total volume of the distillate (4.0 ml):
Volume of ethanol = 4.0 ml
Next, you need to find the volume of water in the distillate. Since the distillate contains only ethanol and water, the volume of water can be calculated by subtracting the volume of ethanol from the total volume of the distillate:
Volume of water = Total volume of distillate - Volume of ethanol
= 4.0 ml - Volume of ethanol
Once you have determined the volume of ethanol and water in the distillate, you can use these values to calculate the initial percent composition of the unknown/H2O solution.
Starting with the assumption that the initial solution was 25 ml, the remaining solution after distillation would be 25 ml - 4.0 ml = 21 ml.
To find the initial percent composition of the unknown/H2O solution, divide the volume of ethanol by the total volume of the solution (initial solution - distilled volume) and multiply by 100:
Percent composition of ethanol = (Volume of ethanol / Total volume of solution) * 100
Percent composition of water = (Volume of water / Total volume of solution) * 100
If the unknown did form an azeotrope with water, meaning it created a stable mixture with a constant boiling point different from the boiling points of the individual components, the initial percent composition can still be calculated by analyzing the composition of the azeotrope.
You would need to determine the composition of the azeotrope by referring to available data or experimental results. With the composition of the azeotrope, you can then calculate the initial percent composition of the solution based on the volume of the azeotrope obtained during distillation.