[jnimagine]

Hi
I am in need of desperate help with chemistry...
So we did a simple distillation of an unknown alcohol and after the distillation, we were to identify what the alcohol is..
My result was that i got my first drop of distillate at around 89degrees and then the temperature increased by about 2degrees C as more distillate was obtained...
now, we were given some boling point temperatures of some alcohols and since I got the first drop at 89, I concluded that my alcohol is 1-propanol + water which has a boiling point of 88. When we graph the data with temperature and the volume of distillate, it obviously is almost a straight line because temperature only changed by like 2degrees C.
I'm not too sure what to discuss for this lab other than that the boiling point was similar... what's up with the temperature increasing a little... or is that a big reading error? Is it an azeotrope? If so, how do I determine from the data and the graph that it is an azotrope...?
and also, the little bit of the mixture left in the still pot turned pink after the distillation...
WHAT IS GOING ON???
Please help me understand my results/graph to interpret the data...
I would REALLY appreciate it...
Thanks.

[Arkcon]

OK, lets start with your chart.  Have you drawn it according to lecture notes and your experimental results?  What goes on each axis?  What is it's shape?  You can google for online graphing applets, if you can't scan your chart into your post.

I've seen the pink, or purple, or yellow or brown residue left as distillation starts to go dry.  FWIW, it's not very important, it's organic material charring.  So that's just an observation for you to mention, to show you're alert the whole time.   So there's not much for you to write up.

[jnimagine]

OK, lets start with your chart.  Have you drawn it according to lecture notes and your experimental results?  What goes on each axis?  What is it's shape?  You can google for online graphing applets, if you can't scan your chart into your post.

I've seen the pink, or purple, or yellow or brown residue left as distillation starts to go dry.  FWIW, it's not very important, it's organic material charring.  So that's just an observation for you to mention, to show you're alert the whole time.   So there's not much for you to write up.

Thanks for the reply
For the graph: y-axis was temperature and the x-axis was the volume of distillate in drops.  My first point was 1drop at 89degrees. and then it went up to 90 90.5 and then the last temperature was around 92ish at 48drops.  so since there wasn't that much difference in the temperature, the line of best fit is basically just a straight line... not much more than that lol
oh so the colour change indicates that there's some kind of residue left in the pot? what do you mean by charring??
anyways the real important part is the actual distillation part!!! > . <

[jnimagine]

. anyone??? plz *delete me*

[Arkcon]

OK ... lets try this.  Does the published boiling points of your two suggested components match your observed data?  Common azeotropes and their boiling points and compositions are also published.