I’m working on extraction of secondary metabolites from fungi and considering using a mix of solvents with different polarities. Does mixing solvents increase the range of compounds that can be extracted?
Generally according to the polarity of the solvent you can extract different metabolites. The solvents are divided into three main groups according to their polarity: polar protic solvents, polar aprotic solvents and non polar solvents. You can mix different solvents from the same group. For example, you can mix water with methanol or ethanol because these three solvents are polar protic solvents.
Your question is NOT stupid at all. There are cases in research in which a single solvent cannot do its job in the best possible way so the chemist will try a mixed solvent or a binary mixture of solvents. For example, assume that you are working with a solvent that has low polarity.The addition of a small amount of a polar solvent to a solvent with a low polarity will significantly increase the polarity of the medium. The "new" medium may help in more or better extraction of the desired component(s) from the mixture under investigation.
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