So we oxidized an alcohol to form a ketone today. So there was a point where I had to wash my DCM layer in a seperatory funnel with 5% NaHCO3, and then NaSO3, and then with distilled water. What was the reason for this? For my post lab report it asks me to explain the purpose for each liquid. Does that mean the three have different purposes? I had a question like this before and I thought it was basically to purify any impurities and make the seperation between the two layers more visible but apparently I was wrong. So yeah..I'm kinda confused.