2.1.5

Separating Mixtures

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Distillation

Distillation is a special technique used to separate mixtures of liquids. It uses the different boiling points of liquids to separate them. There are 2 types of distillation:

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Simple distillation

  • Separates 2 liquids with different boiling points.
    • The mixture is heated until the liquid with the lower boiling point starts to boil.
    • The vapour released passes through a condenser, where the gas cools back into a liquid.
  • Simple distillation can also be used to separate a solute from a solvent when the solvent has a lower boiling point than the solute.
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Fractional distillation

  • Separates lots of liquids with different boiling points.
    • The mixture is slowly heated until the liquid with the lowest boiling point boils and then condenses.
    • Then we increase temperature slowly to collect (boil then condense) the other fractions.

Jump to other topics

1States of Matter

2Elements, Compounds & Mixtures

3Atomic Structure

4The Periodic Table

5Chemical Formulae, Equations & Calculations

6Bonding

7Electrolysis

8Groups of the Periodic Table

9The Atmosphere

10Reactivity Series

11Metal Extraction

12Acids & Alkalis

13Chemical Tests

14Physical Chemistry

15Organic Chemistry

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