Is it possible make a saturated solution of benzoic acid using methylene chloride as the solvent?

Answer 1

You can make a saturated solution of anything in any solvent. The question is how much will actually be dissolved in the saturated solution. A saturated solution of salt in water will obviously have a LOT of salt in it. A saturated solution of sand in water won't have any dissolved sand at all! It'll still be saturated. What you want to know is what the solubility of benzoic acid is in methylene chloride. That I don't know. One way to find out is just add a known amount of benzoic acid to the solvent and see if it dissolves. If you search the scientific literature of organic synthesis, I'm sure the solubility of benzoic acid is known in a variety of solvents, although methylene chloride isn't the most common. I found this in the MSDS (see link to the left): SOLUBILITY IN WATER: 2.9% @ 20 C SOLVENT SOLUBILITY: Soluble in alcohol, ether, benzene, chloroform,acetone, carbon disulfide, oil of turpentine, carbon tetrachloride, fixed and volatile oils; slightly soluble in petroleum ether, hexane. The other link, ChemicalForums.com, seems to imply that it is soluble, but no data is given. Check out this for more on benzoic acid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzoic_acid