BRAINCAKEDrying an Organic Liquid
After separation, the organic layer still contains traces of water, which make it look cloudy. It is dried by adding an anhydrous salt (a drying agent), which absorbs water to form a hydrated salt. Common drying agents are anhydrous magnesium sulfate, MgSO4, and anhydrous calcium chloride, CaCl2.
Method
1. Run the organic layer into a dry conical flask.
2. Add a spatula of drying agent, stopper the flask and swirl.
3. If the solid clumps together, water is still present, so add more until some of the solid stays free-flowing when swirled.
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More in Organic Synthesis
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- Identifying Functional Groups
- Two-Stage Synthetic Routes
- Predicting Properties from Functional Groups
All 8 lessons in Organic Synthesis · All OCR AS-level Chemistry topics