Question

Not counting solubility relations and effectiveness for removal of impurities, in whatrespects would hexyl alcohol be a less desirable crystallization solvent thanmethanol or ethanol (hint: look at MSDS physical and chemical properties)

Answer 1

A Good crystallization is usually carried out using the most logical and well known solvents where the peculiarities of the solvent(s) do not enter the equation. Of course this depends greatly on the nature of the material that is being crystallized. Also, it is more likely that Methanol/Ethanol are preferred because they are miscible with a greater number of coordinate crystallization counter solvents than the hexyl alcohol.

Looking into their physical and chemical properties, the viscosity of methanol/ethanol is less than the viscosity of hexanol, so is more likely and easily to be separated from the cristals. Another property it that Methanol/Ethanol have lower boiling points, and one of the last steps during recrystallization is removing all of the solvent to get the pure dry crystals. Both Methanol and Ethanol have low boiling points and are easy to remove from the solid product. Hexanol has a high boiling point (around 150 °C) so this makes it more difficult to remove.

Finally,hexyl alcohol is the least polar of the three compounds and it would retain more of the substance being recrystallized and decreasing your yield.