separatory-funnel-1

also known as separation funnel, separating funnel, or colloquially sep funnel, is a piece of laboratory glassware used in liquid-liquid extractions to separate (partition) the components of a mixture between two immiscible solvent phases of different densities. Typically, one of the phases will be aqueous, and the other a non-polar lipophilic organic solvent such as ether, MTBE,dichloromethane, chloroform, or ethyl acetate. Most organic solvents float on top of an aqueous phase, though important exceptions are most halogenated solvents.