Question

What is distillation, and how is it possible that it separates two (or more) liquid compounds from each other?

Answer 1

Distillation is a process which is used for separating different components present together in a mixture based on their boiling points differences. Distillation is an important process in chemistry which extends its uses in industries, food science, textile companies etc. Examples of distillation include purification of alcohols, crude oil refining etc to name a few. Its principle includes changing the phase of the components from liquid to the gas phase on providing energy to the system (eg. heating). This gaseous phase of one of the component can then be condensed and separated from the mixture.

Suppose you have a mixture of two components which have a difference in their boiling points to be equivalent to 25^o C, these liquids can be heated together to push the component with a lesser boiling point into the gas phase. This gaseous phase component which is now separated from the mixture can be condensed back to the liquid state by cooling and recollected. This process can be repeated again and again to produce the purest form of that separated component. This process is known as Simple distillation.

The other processes are called steam distillation, vacuum distillation and fractional distillation.

Please drop a comment if you want to get an explanation for these processes as well.

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