Distillation Lab Report Guidelines

[ks...@cornell.edu]

Hey everyone,

Just a few guidelines for the distillation report:

1.) Include all of your data (refractive indices, temperature ranges of your fractions, etc.) It might be a good idea to include that graph of temperature vs. volume. 

2.) Please share your data. I will be expecting comparisons of your specific solvent system with all the different variations performed on that system (one simple distillation + 4 fractional distillations). Your specific solvent system may not have been performed on all fractional columns, but do your best to include as many as possible. Let me emphasize that you do not need to compare all the different solvent systems, just the one you were assigned and the different distillations performed on it.

3.) Be critical in your analysis as usual and compare the different variations and discuss whether the data makes sense or not.

4.) Do not include procedure in your report. I have been lenient about it so far, but if I see procedure pop up in the results or discussion section, I will take off points. 

5.) Might be nice to mention the existence of azeotropes and if they played any sort of role in this experiment.

As we proceed further into the semester, my list of guidelines will get shorter. I expect that you guys should have a pretty decent idea of what to include in these reports by now. Of course if you have any confusions or doubts on what to include, please feel free to ask me! :-)

Best,

Kyle