EXTRACTIONS: What if methylene chloride was used as the organic solvent instead of diethyl ether?

Question

If methylene chloride (CH2Cl2) was used as the organic solvent instead of diethyl ether what would be different when performing the extractions? 

 

I've already done the lab where we had to separate an unknown mixture of an acidic, basic, and neutral component in a 1:1:1. As for my answer, I would think nothing would be 'drastically' different because methylene chloride is an organic solvent that is immiscible with water, but miscible with many organic solvents. However, in lab we used diethyl ether in lab and I know that its slightly miscible in water. So does this mean that if methylene chloride was used instead of the diethyl ether, I would be getting a higher percent yield at the end? I'm not sure if my thinking process is correct, so I could use some help! Thank you in advance! 

Answer 1

Neither methylene chloride or ether are especially miscible with water, but methylene chloride is considerably more polar than diethylether.  Even though dichlormethane (methylene chloride) is not very polar, it is more polar than ether.  So, depending on the nature of the material being extracted (polar v. non polar), you will get better or worse extraction.  I would think both the acidic and the basic compounds would be better extracted with the dichloromethane.