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Miscibility: Hexane, Ethanol, and Water

  • Page ID
    131412
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    Required Training

    Required PPE

    UC Lab Safety Fundamentals

    Lab coat, safety glasses/goggles, nitrile gloves

    Equipment

    Chemicals

    DI Water Bottle

    400 mL Hexane

    1 L Screw Top bottle

    400 mL Absolute Ethanol

    4-10 Crystals Iodine (to color)

    Procedure:

    1. Measure 400 mL pure ethanol into the screw top bottle.
    2. Measure 400 mL hexane and add it to the screw top bottle as well.
    3. Stir in a few crystals of iodine to provide a color deep enough to contrast clear water.
    4. Squirt a few mLs of water into the mixture and invert. Two layers should separate.
    5. Continued shaking will encourage further mixing of the two layers.

    Discussion:

    This demo seems to challenge the rule of thumb “like dissolves like.” Ethanol has a short alkane tail and a hydrophilic –OH head. One can imagine a situation in which the –OH groups exchange hydrogen bonding, allowing for hexane to interact with the –CH3 tails. However, when water is added…??? The density of water is 1.0 g/mL while the density of hexane is 0.65 g/mL and the density of ethanol is 0.79g/mL.

    Hazards:

    Hexane and ethanol are known to have serious health effects (reproductive hazards, carcinogenic effects, flammability, and acute toxicity.) Be sure to read the SOPs provided on what to do in the case of a spill. In general, spills of flammables like hexane and ethanol should only be handled independently if safe. Call EH&S or the fire department if you think a spill is out of your control.

    SOP clipboard_e23f0407567b149c12aa4f50a7d28bdbe.pngclipboard_e0ae25b2ef25799e9528336794b90df9e.png

    Carcinogen – Hexane

    Potential Reproductive Hazard – Hexane

    Disposal (by Storeroom)

    Proper disposal will be dealt with by the dispensary. The used demo solution will be submitted as waste to EH&S.


    Miscibility: Hexane, Ethanol, and Water is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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