[AssiveAggressive]

Hello! I'm in Organic Chemistry Lab and I'm having a rough time with this problem:

 

Suppose you wish to extract 10 g of benzoic acid from an ether solution with aqueous NaHCO3.

What is the minimum amount of NaHCO3 that must be added to 50 mL of water to carry out the extraction?

 
 

So I'm assuming we use the extraction formula:


Mass_StillInWater = Mass_initial[(Vol_water)/((K*Vol_ether)+Vol_water)]

Then I subtract Mass_StillInWater from Mass_initial to get 10g.


The question doesn't give us a K value or the volume of ether so I'm a little lost in how to begin with this question. I'm not even sure if I'm doing it right. Any help would be appreciated.

[discodermolide]

Try writing the reaction equation for the reaction of benzoic acid with sodium bicarbonate. Then use moles to do your calculation in order to obtain the correct number of grams.

[AssiveAggressive]

Wow, I didn't realize the question was asking for that kind of calculation. Looks like there was way too much extra information in the question. Thank you so much!