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    Maryellen Nerz-Stormes, PH.D.: (Study Aids)

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    Louie Shaolin Lungao
    Steam distillation is a technique used to isolate volatile compounds like clove oil from plant materials like cloves. During steam distillation, a mixture of water and the volatile organic compounds are heated until they boil. Water and organic molecules escape the boiling mixture in proportion to their vapor pressures. Although the organic compounds have low vapor pressures, a small amount lifts off with the water molecules into the distillate. The distillate forms two separate layers after condensation due to the immiscibility of water and organic compounds. Steam distillation efficiently isolates volatile compounds with high yields and in a purified form.

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    Maryellen Nerz-Stormes, PH.D.: (Study Aids)

    Uploaded by

    Louie Shaolin Lungao
    70 views2 pages
    Steam distillation is a technique used to isolate volatile compounds like clove oil from plant materials like cloves. During steam distillation, a mixture of water and the volatile organic compounds are heated until they boil. Water and organic molecules escape the boiling mixture in proportion to their vapor pressures. Although the organic compounds have low vapor pressures, a small amount lifts off with the water molecules into the distillate. The distillate forms two separate layers after condensation due to the immiscibility of water and organic compounds. Steam distillation efficiently isolates volatile compounds with high yields and in a purified form.

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    Steam Distillation

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    Steam distillation is a technique used to isolate volatile compounds like clove oil from plant materials like cloves. During steam distillation, a mixture of water and the volatile organic compounds are heated until they boil. Water and organic molecules escape the boiling mixture in proportion to their vapor pressures. Although the organic compounds have low vapor pressures, a small amount lifts off with the water molecules into the distillate. The distillate forms two separate layers after condensation due to the immiscibility of water and organic compounds. Steam distillation efficiently isolates volatile compounds with high yields and in a purified form.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    70 views2 pages

    Maryellen Nerz-Stormes, PH.D.: (Study Aids)

    Uploaded by

    Louie Shaolin Lungao
    Steam distillation is a technique used to isolate volatile compounds like clove oil from plant materials like cloves. During steam distillation, a mixture of water and the volatile organic compounds are heated until they boil. Water and organic molecules escape the boiling mixture in proportion to their vapor pressures. Although the organic compounds have low vapor pressures, a small amount lifts off with the water molecules into the distillate. The distillate forms two separate layers after condensation due to the immiscibility of water and organic compounds. Steam distillation efficiently isolates volatile compounds with high yields and in a purified form.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Steam Distillation

    By Maryellen Nerz-Stormes, Ph.D.

    [Study Aids]

    A new technique that arises in this experiment is that of steam distillation. When you
    isolate the clove oil (eugenol and acetyl eugenol) from cloves, you will not have a
    solution. Instead, you will have two layers. Unlike the distillation of a solution (e.g.,
    cyclohexane/toluene), these two layers will behave as distinct entities and there will be
    no dependence on how much of each species is present. The total pressure of the pot
    liquids can be defined by the following equation.

    Notice there are no mole fraction terms in the equation. This means that if you have lots
    of water or just a little it will make the same contribution to the vapor pressure. What will
    happen when you distill? The mixture will heat up and eventually boil. Please recall
    that boiling occurs when the pot liquids have a vapor pressure equal to the
    external pressure. In steam distillation, the pressures of the two components
    must add up to 760 torr. Throughout the heating process, water and clove oil
    molecules will escape in proportion to their respective vapor pressures at the distilling
    temperature. Since water has a significantly lower boiling point than eugenol or acetyl
    eugenol, a much greater proportion of water molecules will be vaporizing at any time
    during the distillation. Even though the components of clove oil have low vapor
    pressures, they are volatile enough to vaporize to some extent and a small amount will
    lift off with the water molecules. Since the water and organic components are not
    interacting with each other, no enrichment occurs and they will co-distill at a single
    temperature until all of one component is completely distilled over. Normally, steam
    distillations are carried out with a large excess of water. When all the organic
    component has been distilled, pure water begins to distill. How is this situation reflected
    in the appearance of the liquid and in the still head temperature?

    While the steam distillation is occurring, the boiling point of the two together will be
    lower than the boiling point of the more volatile component. Why? At the end of the
    distillation, you will have two layers in the receiver which can be separated.

    A helpful relationship when considering steam distillation in a theoretical sense is the


    ideal gas law, PV = nRT, where P = pressure, V = volume, n = moles, R = the gas
    constant and T = temperature. It is important to remember that all of these parameters
    refer to gaseous molecules. Since distillation involves the expansion of a liquid into a
    gas in a fixed volume (the still), the gas law can be useful in predicting the amount of
    water needed to complete a steam distillation or to figure out the proportion in which the
    organic and aqueous layers will co-distill. To gain a more practical expression, take the
    ratio of a gas law written for the gaseous water and one written for the organic gas. If
    this is done, one obtains the following expression.
    Fortunately, several of the terms in the above expression cancel. The volumes cancel
    because both gases occupy the same space, i.e., the still. The temperature terms
    cancel because the two components are co-distilling at the same temperature. The R
    terms obviously cancel.

    The equation therefore reduces to:

    This simple equation sums up steam distillation because it demonstrates that the
    amount of water obtained is directly proportional to the vapor pressure of water at the
    distillation temperature. The same is true of the organic component . Therefore, if the
    organic component has a higher boiling point than the aqueous component, it will
    contribute fewer molecules to the overall push against the atmosphere. Nonetheless,
    the two components are working together. You can think of the system as being like two
    people trying to push a broken down car. The weaker person may not be contributing
    much, but is still reducing the work for the stronger person. Because the organic is
    there, the water does not have to push as hard against atmosphere and this is why the
    overall temperature is the below the boiling point of pure water.

    Now with all this sophisticated theory stated, why is steam distillation useful? You might
    wonder why you would not just take the cloves and press the oil out of them or extract
    the cloves directly with an organic solvent such as methylene chloride or ether. The
    problem with pressing the oil out (and this can be done) is that the yield is very low. You
    might be able to imagine that much of the material would get caught up in the solid
    matrix that constitutes most of the mass of the cloves. The problem with a direct organic
    extraction is that many other nonvolatile organic components of the clove would also
    dissolve in the solvent resulting in a much more complex mixture. Purification would
    become time consuming and material would lost with each added step. With steam
    distillation, only the volatile components are collected and they can be isolated
    exhaustively if enough water is used.

    In summary, steam distillation is an ideal way to separate volatile compounds from


    nonvolatile contaminants in high yield. For these reasons it has been used extensively
    in the isolation of natural products.

    [Study Aids]

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