A separatory funnel is a glass funnel connected to a venting tube. A stopcock, a type of valve, controls whether the tube is open or closed. Separatory funnel extraction is a process by which layers of a liquid mixture are separated in a funnel. Gravity separates the layers by density. The scientist then opens the stopcock and allows the bottom layer to drain out. This is the densest layer. This draining can be repeated for as many layers as desired.
Titration is a technique wherein an acid is mixed slowly with a base until the pH indicator shows that a pH of 7.0 (neutral) has been reached. Typically, either the acid or the base is of a known chemical formula (e.g. HCl or NaOH), while the other is unknown. At a pH of 7.0, the number of protons (H+) is equal to the number of hydroxide (OH-) ions. From the ratio of acid and base that were mixed together, scientists can calculate how many protons or hydroxide ions are in each molecule of the unknown acid or base.
Chromatography is a technique in which the components of a mixture are separated by passing them through a medium. Different components of the mixture have different levels of affinity for the medium and thus get slowed down by different degrees as they pass through. Gas chromatography (abbreviated GC) vaporizes the mixture before passing it through a type of apparatus called a GC column. The GC machine measures the amount of gas leaving the column and prints a graph of it, which is called a chromatogram. The separated components are then sent to a mass spectrometer.
As gases exit the GC, the ionizer component of the mass spectrometer (abbreviated MS) uses a beam of high-energy electrons to break the gaseous molecules into ions (charged particles). The quadrupole mass analyzer component of the MS then uses voltage to separate the ions by mass. The analyzer and detector components of the MS calculate the ions' masses, which provides insight into the molecular weight of the original compound and elucidates the compound's structure and chemical composition. Frequent calibration of the detector regarding the ions' mass to charge ratio is needed.