How can you separate diethyl tartrate once you have produced it using tartaric acid and ethanol in esterification?

Answer 1

I am assuming that by separation, you are asking it to purify diethyl tartrate. This can be done with chromatography, since polarity ranks in diethyl tartrate > ethanol > tartaric acid. This could also be done with distillation under vacuum, and thus these molecules can be isolated.

If the question is asking to do the reverse reaction, as in to hydrolyze diethyl tartrate, you can add a base to break this compound into two molecules: the salt form of tartarate and ethanol.

Answer 2

You can separate diethyl tartrate from the mixture by using fractional distillation. The boiling points of diethyl tartrate and ethanol are different, allowing for separation based on boiling point differences. Diethyl tartrate has a higher boiling point than ethanol, so it will be collected as the distillate at a higher temperature.