umofiae

ok..thanks for your reply...the products where o-tol-van, m-tol-van and p-tol-van. the solvents used were water, ethanol and ethanol/water (1:1). the m-tol-van for the 3 methods and solvents gave oils while the o-tol-van and p-tol-van products gave crystals for water and ethanol/water, however it gave oils when synthesized with ethanol...That's my conflict... With regards to the purification of the products, running a column seems to be the best idea. With regards the alternative you gave, will that be done using a separatory funnel?

I have been able to synthesize some compounds (which i believe are Schiff bases) using vanillin and the isomers of toluidine via three different methods,with a change in solvent and reaction conditions. while two methods gave crystals, the other gave an oily product. i am wondering why this happened. Could it be because of the change in solvent and reaction conditions? Also, what other method can i use in purifying the oil apart from column chromatography? thanks -umofiae