Limonene is an alkene, which at room temperature is a colourless, oily liquid with the smell of oranges. On Thursday, 23rd November, our Year 13 chemistry class attempted to extract limonene from orange peels using a distillation technique. We used thin strips of orange peel, added them to a distillation flask with water, and boiled the mixture. As the water evaporated, it carried a small amount of limonene with it.
From the 50 cm³ of solution we extracted, roughly 1% of the solution was limonene, with the rest being water. Since limonene is less dense than water, a very thin layer could be observed floating on top of the water.
Despite the very small amount of limonene, it gave off a strong smell of oranges. In fact, the process of distillation is commonly used to make perfumes by extracting similar compounds from fruits, flowers and other plants.
Nicolas - Year 13 student
