16.1 Practical techniques in organic chemistry

• Heating under reflux is vaporisation followed by condensation back to the original container
• Distillation is used to separate a liquid from a solution or from a mixture of liquids
• Separating funnels are used to separate liquids with different densities
• Acid impurities can be removed by adding a solution of sodium carbonate and shaking the mixture formed
• Water is removed from the organic product by swirling the mixture with a drying agent, usually an anhydrous salt
• If two organic liquids have very similar boiling points, it may be necessary to distil the product a second time to ensure only the pure liquid is collected