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20 views

Lab Report

Uploaded by

hyy9478
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lab report

Biodiesel is a long-chain methyl or ethyl ester synthesized by reacting


plant oil or animal fat with methanol or ethanol in a transesterification
reaction. Biodiesel's advantages include higher lubricity, no sulfur, lower
toxicity, and cleaner burning with lower emissions. Biodiesel drawbacks
are reduced peak power, cold weather thickening, oxidation in storage,
and increased solvent activity on certain materials (Miikkulainen, 2023).
Before we started, equipment and substances were prepared. We marked
the compound's name in equipment before we transferred.
To synthesize biodiesel, 0.12 mg KOH was dissolved in 3 mL methanol,
and we placed it in an ultrasonic cleaner for 2 minutes. Then, 12 mL
canola oil was added and mixed, followed by another 19 minutes in the
ultrasonic cleaner.
Secondly, we set up the separatory funnel, added the mixture, and waited
until the mixture separated into the top biodiesel and the bottom glycerol
layer. Glycerol was drained.
Lastly, we purified the biodiesel with 15 mL of saturated NaCl 3 times.
Each time, we carefully shook the funnel after we added the NaCl and let
the mixture set until a boundary showed up, then we drained the lower
layer, including the bubbles. We next dried a small amount of the
biodiesel using Na2SO4 in another separate vial. After a while, the
Na2SO4 sank into the bottom of the vial, leaving virtually pure biodiesel.
To analyze the biodiesel, we put the TLC plate containing canola oil and
biodiesel dots into the TLC developing solvent in a TLC chamber and
waited for about 5 minutes for the solvent to rise until 1 cm from the
other edge. We then checked the plate under the UV light and marked
how far the biodiesel, canola oil, and solvent rose.
The retention factors of biodiesel and canola oil are computed using
Rf =distance advanced by substance /distance advanced by the solvent
Retention factors
- Canola oil: 0.495
- Biodiesel: 0.784
We also observed some lighter and wider spots spread about the TLC
plate, which are impurities.
Overall, the experiment went smoothly. During the separation phase,
although the boundary was not very clear, we still noticed the two layers.
From the experiment, we learned about the importance of patience and
preparation, without which, we wouldn’t have been able to finish and
succeed in producing biodiesel and its analysis.

References

Miikkulainen, V. (2023). CHEM-C1220: Principles of General and

Organic Chemistry Pre-reading material - Synthesis of Biodiesel.

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