Extracting n-Butanol Dissolved in Water
 

Hello,

Does anyone know of an easy means of removing dissolved butyl alcohol from water? (The boiling point of butanol is ~117 deg. C; the butanol composes ~2% of the solution).

Regards.

Re: Extracting n-Butanol Dissolved in Water
 

Can't you just distill the water out of it? The boiling point of water is just under the boiling point of butanol, so you would have to monitor is constantly...

I'd suggest adding a large amount of salt to the water, and extracting the butanol with diethyl ether or dichloromethane. It should get salted out, as IPA does, and would be more non-polar then polar, so those solvents should work well.

Purify it by evaporating the ether or DCM, they have much lower boiling points.

here's one application of ionic liquids for a much more efficient extraction of butyl alcohol from water.

http://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&so...nrq6xFTQ6Pjo3A