Diethyl ether is a commonly used solvent for GC analyses because of its low boil

Question

Diethyl ether is a commonly used solvent for GC analyses because of its low boiling point. In this experiment, why did we use heptane as the solvent instead?

Diethyl ether is a commonly used solvent for GC analyses because of its low boiling point. In this experiment, why did we use heptane as the solvent instead? O O O O Heptane has a lower boiling point than that of diethyl ether Diethyl ether has a similar boiling point to that of the product. Heptane will not evaporate as fast as diethyl ether will. Diethyl ether will react with the alkenes that were formed in the experiment.

Explanation / Answer

Answer: Diethyl ether has a similar boiling point to that of the product.

Heptane does not have lower boiling point than diethyl ether, nor will the diethyl ether react with alkene. Although it is true that heptane will not evaporate as fast as diethyl ether will. The main reason is that in GC, the sample is completely dissolved in a low boiling, weakly polar solvent like diethyl ether because the solvent will elute first. However, if low boiling compounds are analysed the solvent may interfere with the spectrum. Hence, the process should be reversed and hexane comparative high boiling solvent should be used.

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