How can you test for the presence of ethanol?

Answer 1

Identification of the components of unknown mixture is a tricky business. Your best bet is to begin with fractional distillation. Using a typical claisen head and condenser set-up, measure the vapor temperature of all the fractions that are distilled from your mixture. The most volatile components will come off first, followed by the heavier and more polar components. Then you can emploly typical charecterization methods, such as IR, NMR, and GC/MS on those fractions to determine their identities. It may be that you have an azeotropic mixture, in which case you're in a much larger pickle.

Answer 2

1.Sodium Metal Test:

Alcohols can be distinguished from other organic compounds, which do not contain acidic group, by this test. A small piece of sodium metal is added to the compound. If hydrogen gas is produced with effervescence, it indicates the presence of alcohols. It may be noted that alcohols cannot be distinguished from carboxylic acids by this test.

2.Ester Test

In this test, the compound to be tested is warmed with acetic acid and a few drops of conc. H2SO4. Formation of sweet smelling vapours of some ester indicates the presence of alcohol.

3.Oxidation Test

In this test, the compound to be tested is warmed with acidified potassium dichromate solution. If the colour changes from orange to green, this indicates the presence of some alcohol.

Similarly, the compound may be warmed with acidified potassium permanganate test. The change of colour from pink to colourless indicates the presence of some alcohol.

Answer 3

There are two types of methods.* Instrumental methods.There is an instrument called pH meter. It has a pH sensitive electrode to be dipped into the solution whose pH is to be measured. This electrode is connected to the meter which is connected to a power supply. The meter has a digital display for reading pH . The pH is accurate to three decimal places.The meter has to be calibrated by using solutions of known pH .This solution can be bought from dealers dealing with chemicals. This is usually very costly. But, the solutions can be prepared from simple chemicals by a BS or an associate in chemistry.

*If one wants to measure roughly the pH e.g.6 0r 7, then a pH paper or universal indicator can be used. A strip of pH paper or a drop of the indicator solution is introduced into the solution. The pH paper or the solution becomes colored. The color is compared with color chart from which the pH can be found out. This method is crude but quick.

Answer 4

To test for the presence of ethanol, you can use an alcohol breathalyzer, chemical test strips, or a gas chromatography test. These methods can detect ethanol in breath, liquids, or gas samples by measuring the concentration of ethanol present.

Answer 5

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