Purification

2-methyl-2-chloropropane is produced by the reaction of concentrated hydrochloric acid with 2-methyl-propan-2-ol. The product is then purified by solvent extraction and simple distillation.

This video looks at the preparation and purification of a primary haloalkane (1-bromobutane) from the corresponding primary alcohol (butan-1-ol). This has an Sn2 mechanism. You will find an accompanying video (Haloalkanes 4) that looks at the preparation of a tertiary haloalkane in a Sn1 mechanism.

This short video takes you quickly through all the important stages in the preparation and purification of ethyl ethanoate (ester). It also provides explanations of why the steps are needed.

Preparation & Puification of Nitrobenzene.

This flash video outlines and explains how an organic solid is purified using recrystallisation. Hot filtration, to remove insoluble impurities, is also included. It explains why the product itself needs to be dissolved (to release the impurities trapped within its microscopic structure. It explains why the minimum volume of hot solvent should be used to reduce losses of the product. It concludes by looking at the cooling, isolation and further purification procedures involved.

In this video I look at how to isolate an organic solid from a suspension using vacuum filtration. I then move on to describe how the melting point can be determined and used assess the solid's purity. It is one in a series of short videos looking at the main organic practical techniques: heat & distill; reflux distillation; washing and drying in solvent extraction; recrystallisation and melting point determination; and others