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Separation Techniques
These separation techniques can be used to seperate mixtures, since mixtures can be seperated
by physical means.

Mixtures
A mixture contains more than one substance. The substances are just mixed together, and not
chemically combined. For example: air is a mixture nitrogen, oxygen, and small amounts of other
gases

Separation methods

i. Filtration for separating a solid from a liquid suspension

ii. Centrifuge for separating a solid from a liquid suspension
iii. Evaporation for separating a solid from its solution
iv. Crystallization for separating a solid from its solution
v. Distillation for separating a solvent from a solution
vi. Fractional distillation for separating two liquids of different boiling points
vii. Chromatography for separating different substances of different solubilities

Simple distillation
This is a way to obtain the solvent from a solution. It could be used to obtain water from salt
water, for example. Like this:
 Heat the solution in the flask. As it boils, water vapour rises into the condenser, leaving salt
behind.
The condenser is cold, so the vapour condenses to water in it.
The water drips into the beaker. It is called distilled water. It is almost pure.

The liquid that is collected after passing through the condenser is called the distillate.

Experiment

AIM: To separate salt from a salt solution using simple distillation.

MATERIALS: a round bottomed flask, condenser, a thermometer, a beaker, a clampstand, rubber

tubing, a Bunsen burner, a salt solution.

PROCEDURE:
 1. Setup the apparatus shown above.
2. Turn on the water tap to cool the condenser.
3. Heat the flask until all the liquid evaporates.
4. Record the temperature at which steam is collected

QUESTIONS:

1. At what temperature is steam collected?

2. What is the residue at the bottom of the flask after all the liquid has evaporated?
3. What is the advantage of distillation over evaporation?

Fractional distillation
If miscible liquids are to be separated, then this can be done by fractional distillation. Fractional
distillation relies upon the liquids having different boiling points.This is used to separate a mixture
of liquids from each other.You could use it to separate a mixture of ethanol and water, for
example.

Experiment

AIM: To separate a mixture of ethanol and water using fractional distillation.

MATERIALS: a round bottomed flask, fractionating column, condenser, a thermometer, a beaker, a
clampstand, rubber tubing, a Bunsen burner, ethanol solution.

PROCEDURE:

1. Heat the mixture in the flask. At about 78°C, the ethanol begins to boil. Some water
evaporates too. So a mixture of ethanol and water vapours rises up the column.
2. The vapours condense on the glass beads in the column, making them hot.
3. When the beads reach about 78°C, ethanol vapour no longer condenses on them. Only the
water vapour does. So water drips back into the flask. The ethanol vapour goes into the
condenser.
4. There it condenses. Pure liquid ethanol drips into the beaker.
5. Eventually, the thermometer reading rises above 78 °C – a sign that all the ethanol has
gone. So you can stop heating.
QUESTION

A mixture contains aqueous sodium chloride and insoluble powdered charcoal (carbon).

(i) Suggest how the powdered charcoal can be separated from the mixture. ....[1]
(ii) Suggest how water can be removed from aqueous sodium chloride. ...[1]

SOLUTION

i. By filtration
ii. By distillation

Fractional distillation in industry

Uses of fractional distillation:

i. in the petroleum industry, to refine crude oil into petrol and other groups of compounds. The
oil is heated and the vapours rise to different heights, up a tall steel fractionating column.
ii. in producing ethanol. The ethanol is made by fermentation, using sugar cane or other plant
material. It is separated from the fermented mixture by fractional distillation. Ethanol is
used as a solvent, and as car fuel.
iii. to separate the gases in air. The air is cooled until it is liquid, then warmed up. The gases
boil off one by one.

In fractional distillation, the liquids collected are called fractions

Chromatography
Chromatograhy is used to separate two or more substances that have different solubilities. This
technic is used when you have to seprate mixtures of coloured materials such as inks and dyes.
There are several types of chromatography; however, they all follow the same basic principles.
The simplest kind is paper chromatography. To separate the different coloured dyes in a sample
of black ink, a spot of the ink is put on to a piece of chromatography paper. This paper is then set
in a suitable solvent.

As the solvent moves up the paper, the dyes are carried with it and begin to separate. They
separate because the substances have different solubilities in the solvent and are absorbed to
different degrees by the chromatography paper.The most soluble one travels fastest. As a result,
they are separated gradually as the solvent moves up the paper

Uses of chromatography:

1. identify substances
2. check the purity of substances
 3. identify pollutants in air, or in samples of river water.

It is used on a large scale to:

1. separate pure substances (for example for making medical drugs or food flavourings) from
tanks of reaction mixtures, in factories
2. separate individual compounds from the groups of compounds (fractions) obtained in
refining petroleum.

QUESTIONS

1. How would you obtain pure water from seawater? Draw the apparatus, and explain how the
method works.
The method is called distillation. Setup the apparatus as shown in the diagram above. Heat the
flask containing the seawater until the water evaporates. The water vapour will pass through the
condenser where it is cooled and condensed back to liquid. Collect the pure water in a clean
flask.

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