The percent yield that was obtained for limonene was 0.146%. The percent yield was low and states that the amount of limonene isolated from the orange peels was very small. A practical reason that may explain the low percent yield can be that there was human error when trying to collect limonene from steam distillation. There is also the possibility that there was some limonene present in the orange peels solution during the extraction stage. Some of the oil could also have been deemed lost during the decantation of the limonene in the separation portion using the separator funnel. The optical rotation was found using a polarimeter. It is known that limonene is a chiral compound, and it will rotate plane-polarized light in the polarimeter. The angle observed is the optical rotation as stated earlier. The optical rotation of the limonene oil was found to be 8
The percent yield that was obtained for limonene was 0.146%. The percent yield was low and states that the amount of limonene isolated from the orange peels was very small. A practical reason that may explain the low percent yield can be that there was human error when trying to collect limonene from steam distillation. There is also the possibility that there was some limonene present in the orange peels solution during the extraction stage. Some of the oil could also have been deemed lost during the decantation of the limonene in the separation portion using the separator funnel. The optical rotation was found using a polarimeter. It is known that limonene is a chiral compound, and it will rotate plane-polarized light in the polarimeter. The angle observed is the optical rotation as stated earlier. The optical rotation of the limonene oil was found to be 8