I've been reading through the Sandmeyer GBL synth here :
https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/gaba2gbl.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/gaba2gbl.html)
and am slightly confused when it gets to the extraction part. It talks about using DCM as an extractor, but isn't GBL water soluble? Or is it just "more soluble" in DCM (or chloroform?) so it moves into the DCM/Chloroform layer. If someone were to do this without doing "Step 1" (the simple distillation) which solvent would the GBL end up in?
Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question (and it probably is), it just seems confusing to as to why an organic solvent is used when GBL is water soluble, and so are the other end products.
Thanks :)