Separating Funnels

A separatory funnel, also known as separation funnel, separating funnel, or colloquially sep funnel, is a piece of laboratory glassware used in liquid-liquid extractions to separate (partition) the components of a mixture into two immiscible solvent phases of different densitiesTypically, one of the phases will be aqueous, and the other a non-polar lipophilic organic solvent such as ether, MTBE, dichloromethane, chloroform, or ethyl acetate. All of these solvents form a clear delineation between the two liquids.The two layers formed are usually known as the organic and aqueous phases.