Testing the Purity of Ethyl Ethanoate
1) During the practical you will measure the boiling point of your product to determine the purity
of ethyl ethanoate.
a. Why is the boiling point a good test to check it is not contaminated with impurities?
By comparing the boiling point of our sample and the boiling point of pure ethyl ethanoate. We will
be able to see if there is a change and if there is this will show that there are impurities. Impurities
have a boiling point of their own that will alter the boiling point if they are present.
b. What happens to the boiling point when two liquid substances are mixed? Can you
explain why?
This increases the concentration which therefore increases the boiling point. The boiling point of a
substance is dependent on the intermolecular forces within the substance so the stronger the
intermolecular forces, the higher the boiling point.
c. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this method?
Advantages Disadvantages
You can identify a substances as high purity or Very small samples are used with this method
low purity by comparing the experimental so it may not be effective in industry.
values of its boiling point with those from a
data book.
Boiling points are known very accurately for This method is not accurate enough to be used
most elements and compounds. efficiently in industry due to the reliability of
human accuracy for determining boiling point.
These values are usually listed in data books so This method also doesn’t allow us to analyse
are easy and quick to find. the impurities meaning they cannot be
identified precisely to their molecule so this
makes extracting them harder.
Conclusions to the practical
Actual boiling point: 77.1
Reference: www.libretexts.org
a) How close is your boiling point to the actual melting point?
My boiling point was 77 degrees and the published one was 77.1 degrees. This is only a slight
difference which shows that there weren’t may impurities in my sample showing that my
samples purity was high. However, the 0.1 difference in boiling point shows that I could have
been more accurate in my method as there is impurities contained ion my product. This shows
that there were minimal impurities however that were left in our solution to burn because the
temperature I got was really near to the actual boiling point. This could have been due to human
error and the percentage error of the thermometer that I was 0.5 + or -. We could eradicate this
by using more accurate equipment.
Boiling point measurement
1) During the practical you will measure the boiling point of your product to determine the purity
of ethyl ethanoate.
a. Why is the boiling point a good test to check it is not contaminated with impurities?
By comparing the boiling point of our sample and the boiling point of pure ethyl ethanoate. We will
be able to see if there is a change and if there is this will show that there are impurities. Impurities
have a boiling point of their own that will alter the boiling point if they are present.
b. What happens to the boiling point when two liquid substances are mixed? Can you
explain why?
This increases the concentration which therefore increases the boiling point. The boiling point of a
substance is dependent on the intermolecular forces within the substance so the stronger the
intermolecular forces, the higher the boiling point.
c. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this method?
Advantages Disadvantages
You can identify a substances as high purity or Very small samples are used with this method
low purity by comparing the experimental so it may not be effective in industry.
values of its boiling point with those from a
data book.
Boiling points are known very accurately for This method is not accurate enough to be used
most elements and compounds. efficiently in industry due to the reliability of
human accuracy for determining boiling point.
These values are usually listed in data books so This method also doesn’t allow us to analyse
are easy and quick to find. the impurities meaning they cannot be
identified precisely to their molecule so this
makes extracting them harder.
Conclusions to the practical
Actual boiling point: 77.1
Reference: www.libretexts.org
a) How close is your boiling point to the actual melting point?
My boiling point was 77 degrees and the published one was 77.1 degrees. This is only a slight
difference which shows that there weren’t may impurities in my sample showing that my
samples purity was high. However, the 0.1 difference in boiling point shows that I could have
been more accurate in my method as there is impurities contained ion my product. This shows
that there were minimal impurities however that were left in our solution to burn because the
temperature I got was really near to the actual boiling point. This could have been due to human
error and the percentage error of the thermometer that I was 0.5 + or -. We could eradicate this
by using more accurate equipment.
Boiling point measurement
