Discussion Continued: Nucleophilic displacement - Formation of an ether by an SN2 reaction

For the 60:40 hexane:EtOAC mixture, the Rf value of 2-naphthol was 0.406 and the Rf value of the product was 0.417. It can be concluded that the 60:40, hexane:EtOAC, was the best solvent mixture due to the fact that the Rf values are within the ideal Rf range of 0.3-0.7. TLC indicated that the product was pure because there were no traces of the starting material (2-naphthol). Therefore it can be concluded that the reaction was successful since the TLC plates showed no trace of other compounds in the final product of butyl naphthyl ether. In all instances the substances traveled an acceptable distance to the top and they did not smudge over each other.