Answer to Question #280720 in Organic Chemistry for ness

Question

The colors of the two layers after agitating and settling make it clear that most of the iodine was extracted from the aqueous layer into the organic layer, but that does not explain the color change from orange in the aqueous layer to magenta in the organic layer. Use the Internet to research the cause for this color change.

Answer 1

To determine which layer is which, one can simply add distilled water to the funnel. Whichever layer increases in size must be the aqueous layer and the other is the organic layer. At this point the two layers can be separated into their respective beakers.