Distillation of a Liquid Mixture

A whiskey distillery has requested your help. They want to know what organic compounds are responsible for the flavor of their flagship product. They have sent you a sample of the whiskey (minus the water and ethanol) for analysis.

Please determine which distillation technique, simple distillation or fractional distillation, can effectively separate the compounds in the sample. Use this technique to obtain pure samples of each compound and then characterize the compound using infrared (IR) spectroscopy. If you can, use the compound’s boiling point, IR spectrum, and odor, to identify it for the distillery.

Time required: 2 laboratory sessions

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