My current project is investigating the solubility of crude oil by using biosurfactant produced by bacteria.
I used n-hexane to extract the dissolved oil from the biosurfactant. But then, ethanol had to be added in order to maximize the extraction. This made two layers inside the tube.
What I confused about is how does adding ethanol effect this experiment. What are the layers between the bio-surfactant and n-hexane?
you can use mix from chloroform and ethanol ratio 2:1 or hexane:ethanol
Ethanol is considered to be a polar compound... So its mix with n-hexane is minimal...
U can refer this paper if you want to know the effect of ethanol in BS CMC..
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10595-005-0075-7#page-1
I understand that you are trying to quantify the amount of crude oil that has partitioned inside the aqueous solution with the aid of biosurfactants. If my understanding is right then, the role of ethanol in your case is to destabilize the micelles and facilitate the release of crude oil inside the micelles and partition to n-hexane. Ethanol being highly polar, will tend to stay in the aqueous phase, however, a portion of the ethanol will also be partitioned to n-hexane(very small quantity). The amount of ethanol partitioned into the n-hexane could be quantified through a simple blank experiment in the absence of crude oil using gas chromatography
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