Welcome to the online depository for basic chemistry techniques.

 Acid-Base Extraction

An acid-base extraction is a type of liquid-liquid extraction. It typically involves different solubility levels
in water and an organic solvent. The organic solvent may be any carbon-based liqiuid that does not
dissolve very well in water; common ones are ether, ethyl acetate, or dichloromethane. Acid-base
extraction is typically used to separate organic compounds from each other based on their acid-base
properties.

 Calibration of a Buret

To carry out this procedure you will require, in addition to a volumetric buret, two clean, dry 125 mL
Erlenmeyer flasks and one #5 rubber stopper.

 Condensing Volatile Gases

Ever had to run a reaction with a volatile gas? It's not a very common thing to have to do, but every once
in a while, it needs to be done.

 Cooling baths

Cooling baths are used extensively in organic chemistry for a variety of reasons. The low temperature of
these baths is determined both by the appropriate use of solvent as well as a cryogenic agent such as
liquid nitrogen, dry ice or ice. Temperatures between -20 and -80° can be obtained using varied mixtures
of ethylene glycol and ethanol over dry ice.

 Distillation

Distillation of compounds is a method of separation which exploits the differences in boiling point of a
crude mixture. Several methods exist.

 Distillation II

Distillation is a method of purifying organic compounds. It takes advantage of the fact that two different
compounds probably have two different boiling points. Suppose two different liquids are present in a
homogeneous mixture (they are completely miscible, or they mix completely together, like water and
alcohol). If they have two different boiling points, one of the compounds will evaporate before the other
one does.

 Drying Solvents

hese days many laboratories will use a commercially available solvent purification system, others will
distil solvents using more traditional techniques. Tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane,
dimethylformamide, chloroform, acetonitrile, methanol, diethyl ether and toluene are all commonly
used solvents, and in many cases they are required in anhydrous form. In some cases there are multiple
ways to dry a given solvent.
 Fractional crystallization

Fractional crystallization is a method of refining substances based on differences in solubility. It

fractionates via differences in crystallization (forming of crystals). If a mixture of two or more substances
in solution are allowed to crystallize, for example by allowing the temperature of the solution to
decrease, the precipitate will contain more of the least soluble substance. The proportion of
components in the precipitate will depend on their solubility products.

 Heating a Crucible to Constant Weight

Your first exercise teaches you some skills on the proper use of the laboratory burner (in this case called
a Tirill Burner), the adjustment of the flame and the proper placement of a crucible which is to be
heated to constant weight.

 Liquid-Liquid Extraction

Liquid-Liquid extraction is a method by which a compound is pulled from solvent A to solvent B where
solvents A and B are not miscible. The most common method of liquid-liquid extraction is performed
using a separatory funnel.

 Solvent Partitioning (Liquid - Liquid Extraction)

 Packing Columns

Column chromatography in chemistry is a chromatography method used to purify individual chemical

compounds from mixtures of compounds. It is often used for preparative applications on scales from
micrograms up to kilograms.

 Packing Normal Phase Columns

 Precipitation from a Homogeneous Solution

If a precipitating agent is produced over a long period of time in a homogeneous solution the level of
supersaturation remains low and compact crystal precipitates usually result instead of coagulated
colloids. The resulting suspension of precipitate is compact, crystalline and easily filtered, whereas a
precipitate formed by the addition of a precipitating agent is not easily filtered owing to a high level of
relative supersaturation at the point where the reagent is added.

 Preparing your Filter Paper

Folding a piece of filter paper for insertion into a conical filter consists of a simple set of steps shown
here in the six photographs below.

 Proper Use of a Buret

The volumetric analysis exercises will make use of a 50 mL buret.

 Proper Use of a Desiccator

A desiccator is an airtight container which maintains an atmosphere of low humidity through the use of
a suitable drying agent which occupies the bottom part of the desiccator. It is used both for the cooling
of heated objects and for the storage of dry objects that must not be exposed to the moisture normally
present in the atmosphere.

 Proper Use of Balances

For a chemical reaction to be successful, reactants must be added with accurate, specific masses, and
products must be accurately weighed at the end of the reaction. Therefore, balances are of immense
importance in a chemistry lab.

 Quenching Reactions

Quenching a reaction refers to the deactivate any unreacted reagents.

 Quenching Reactions: Grignards

 Quenching Reactions: Lithium Aluminium Hydride

 Recrystallization (Advantages)

This technique is no longer as widely used as it was before the advent of flash chromatography, but it's
still quite useful! A particular advantage is that compounds can be recrystallized in amounts that are
somewhere between streaky and impossible to column.

 Recrystallization

 Reflux

Reflux is a technique involving the condensation of vapors and the return of this condensate to the
system from which it originated. It is used in industrial and laboratory distillations. It is also used in
chemistry to supply heat to reactions over a long period of time.

 Rotary Evaporation

Rotary evaporation is the process of reducing the volume of a solvent by distributing it as a thin film
across the interior of a vessel at elevated temperature and reduced pressure. This promotes the rapid
removal of excess solvent from less volatile samples. Most rotary evaporators have four major
components: heat bath, rotor, condenser, and solvent trap. An aspirator or vacuum pump needs to be
attached, as well as a bump trap and round bottom flask containing the concentrated sample.

 Thin Layer Chromatography

Thin layer chromatography (TLC) is a chromatographic technique used to separate the components of a
mixture using a thin stationary phase supported by an inert backing. It may be performed on the
analytical scale as a means of monitoring the progress of a reaction, or on the preparative scale to purify
small amounts of a compound. TLC is an analytical tool widely used because of its simplicity, relative low
cost, high sensitivity, and speed of separation.

 Chromatography Columns

 Chromatography I: TLC

 Titration

Titration is the slow addition of one solution of a known concentration (called a titrant) to a known
volume of another solution of unknown concentration until the reaction reaches neutralization, which is
often indicated by a color change. The solution called the titrant must satisfy the necessary
requirements to be a primary or secondary standard. In a broad sense, titration is a technique to
determine the concentration of an unknown solution.

 Acid-Base Titrations

 Complexation Titration

 Precipitation Titration

 Redox Titration

 Titration of a Strong Acid With A Strong Base

 Titration of a Weak Acid with a Strong Base

 Titration of a Weak Base with a Strong Acid

 Titration of a Weak Polyprotic Acid

 Use of a Volumetric Pipet

Volumetric glassware is capable of measurements of volume that are good to four significant digits and
is consequently expensive. You should be careful in handling this type of equipment so that breakage
losses are minimized. Be particularly careful with the tips of pipets and burets.

 Vacuum Equipment

Vacuum equipment is used to generate, maintain, and manipulate pressures below that of the ambient
atmosphere. Many common lab procedures require vacuum conditions, such as inert gas purging,
cannulation, and solvent evaporation. Vacuum equipment often requires special care to maintain.

 Vacuum Filtration

Suction filtration is a chemistry laboratory technique which allows for a greater rate of filtration.
Whereas in normal filtration gravity provides the force which draws the liquid through the filter paper,
in suction filtration a pressure gradient performs this function. This has the advantage of offering a
variable rate depending on the strength of the pump being used to extract air from the Büchner flask.