Recrystallization of benzoic acid outline essay

Recrystallization of Benzoic Acid Objective To purify benzoic acid by recrystallization and gain experience with a basic organic laboratory techniques. Background Products of chemical reactions are often contaminated with impurities.

Experimental Report Write an “experimental” describing the procedure that you followed to recrystallize the benzoic acid. A first draft of the experimental is due one week after steps 1–10 have been completed. A final copy that includes the final mass and the melting point of the benzoic acid is due one week after step 11 is completed.

Background Products of chemical reactions are often contaminated with impurities. One method for purifying chemicals, recrystallization, takes advantage of the differences in the solubilities of the desired products and the impurities and the tendency for the slow formation of crystals to exclude impurities from the crystalline solid.

From the balanced chemical equation, it is clear that the benzoic acid will not be pure since the byproduct MgClBr, an ionic solid, forms at the same time the desired product forms. Benzoic acid can be separated from ionic solids because the materials have different solubilities in water.