[porkbuns4mee]

For my chemistry class, we have a lab/project.

It's called the Micro Mixture Lab
The point of this lab is, the teacher gives us a bottle of "stuff" and he wants us to seperate out everything

The bottle composes of - 

saw dust
sand
Iron (Fe)
Salt (NaCl)
Stearic Acid
Benzoic Acid

With normal means, how do i seperate these things.

I know already, that with a filter, Stearic and Benzoic Acid, and salt will fall though while iron, sand and saw dust stay.
I can seperate the Iron from the sand and saw dust with a magnet. and i can pick out the saw dust with a tweezer.
How do i seperate the Salt, Stearic Acid and Benzoic Acid?

We are graded on the quantity we can get and the purity of it.

Any Help?

Thanks.. .Jon

[Alberto_Kravina]

How do i separate the Salt, Stearic Acid and Benzoic Acid?

I think that Benzoic acid can be separated by recristallisation, but I'm definately not sure about this.

[porkbuns4mee]

Hey. Thanks

i don't usually pay attention in class, but i thought you neede to have a super-saturated solution to be able to get crystalization?




-correct me if im wrong... but if i put all three of them in a small liquid solution and warm the water, the salt should dissolve and the A. acid should float to the top because its fatty right? but what happens to the benzoic acid? and how would i seperate fat thats laying on water? if i evaporate the water, i'll get back to the same place i started from.

[xiankai]

how do u seperate the sawdust from sand with a tweezers? arent both very grainy and fine? it would be time consuming to do so, from what i can visualise. correct me if im wrong

[Borek]

Saw dust will float on the wter, everything else will either dissolve or sink.

[porkbuns4mee]

the saw dust was easy to get out. thats no problem.

the Fe-Iron was easy too.

. any help though w/ the other stuff?

[Borek]

Check solubilities, especially in acidic solution.

[xiankai]

Saw dust will float on the wter, everything else will either dissolve or sink.

thanks. i never saw sawdust before