Why must you remove the separatory funnel stopper prior to opening the stopcock

Question

Why must you remove the separatory funnel stopper prior to opening the stopcock and draining out the lower layer? During your extraction, you become confused as to which layer is the organic and which is the aqueous. How would you identify them experimentally? Why is the solubility of a neutral organic compound unaltered by exposure to aqueous acid or base? Identify which of the following solvents in each pair would constitute the "upper" layer in a liquid/liquid extraction solution. If layer separation would not be observed, indicate this by stating "miscible." Ethyl acetate and 6M sodium hydroxide solution (aq): Diethyl ether and water: Acetone is an organic solvent in which all three components of the 3-component mixture are soluble Why would it not be a good substitute for dichloromethane in this experiment?

Explanation / Answer

2. this is done to release the pressure bulit inside the funnel as you are using organic solvents which are mostly volatile. This will also help the flow of liquid being drained

3. take out a drop of the layer in question and add it to a small amount (approx. 0.5 mL) of water in a small test tube. If the drop dissolves in the water, the layer in question is the aqueous layer. If the drop does not dissolve, the layer is the organic layer.

4.Neutral organic compounds do not contain -H+ or OH-. They are mostly made up of carbon and hydrogen. Thats why they do not react with acid or base and their solubility can not ba altered.

5. Water is denser than ethyl acetate. So, aqueous layer will remain at the bottom and ethyl acetate at the top.

Diethyl ether on top -water at the bottom

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