if three unlabelled bottles contain ethanol, ethanoic acid and ethylethanoate, how can we distinguish between them without carrying complicated reactions????

Question

jfraser · Answer

find their densities

anonymous · Answer

just the densities??? I mean one's an acid,.. is there any other way?

aaronq · Answer

Measuring their densities would be the easiest and fastest way.

also, you can separate the acid from the other 2 by measuring their BP's, ethanoic acid has the highest one out of those 3. Esters (like ethyl ethanoate) have sweet/fruity smells, so just waft them.

jfraser · Answer

any of the physical properties of the liquids will each be different from the others. Identifying a substance based on 2 or 3 physical properties is a whole lot easier than carrying out reactions and trying to guess what is made.