Extraction and Gas Chromatographic Determination of Ethanol in Beverages

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 1 Issue 5 (1996), S1430-4171(96)05064-9

Extraction and Gas Chromatographic Determination of Ethanol in Beverages

Norbert J. Pienta,* James W. Jorgenson, and Richard M. Forbis

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Published online: 12 December 1996

Abstract. We describe an experiment that teaches liquid-liquid extraction and gas-liquid chromatography, two basic techniques in which students should receive background and experience. It involves an analytical problem that our students consider meaningful and interesting, in addition to fulfilling our pedagogical objectives. In our curriculum, the students who perform the experiment are enrolled in the first semester of both introductory organic and analytical chemistry lecture courses or have completed them previously. Because of the large number of students enrolled and the relatively small number of instruments, only a portion of the total number of students perform this experiment in any week (ca. 25%), and the experiments necessarily do not match the lecture content in time. Therefore, although the theory for both techniques is examined in the latter lecture course, the introduction to the experiment in the lab describes some of that theory, in addition to the experimental details.

Key Words: Laboratories and Demonstrations; organic; laboratory; beer; analytical

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: pienta@pyrite.chem.unc.edu)

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