Separation Techniques

Separating Mixtures

Separating Mixtures
Separating mixtures is important because the substances in many mixtures must be separated before they can be used. Make better use of substances found in mixtures

Insoluble-Liquid Mixture
Decanting
Used to separate a heavy solid from a solution

Filtration
Using a filter paper and filter funnel to separate the solid(residue) from the liquid(filtrate)

Decanting
Mixture was allowed to settle Heavy solid will settle to the bottom of the container Liquid can be poured away using a glass rod to lead the solution

Filtration
Filter paper folded twice to form a cone & fitted into a clean filter funnel Mixture poured into the filter funnel, using a glass rod to lead the mixture into the filter funnel. A clean beaker is used to collect the liquid that has passed through the filter paper, called the filtrate A solid left on the filter paper is called a residue

Filtration
Filtration cannot remove any substance which is dissolved in the liquid A pure, dry sample of the residue is obtained by first washing it with distilled water, then drying it in an oven Crystals are obtained from the filtrate by evaporating the filtrate very slowly if the filtrate contains a dissolved substance

Solid-Solid Mixture
Sublimation
Used only when one solid sublimes on heating

Dissolving and filtration

Used only when one solid is soluble in a particular solvent

Magnetic Attraction
Used only when one solid can be magnetized and attracted by a magnet

Sublimation
Sublimation is the process whereby matter in solid state changes to gaseous state without passing through the liquid phase Can be used as a separating technique when only one substance in the mixture is able to sublime

Dissolving and Filtration

Use only when one of the solid in a mixture can dissolve in a particular solvent The mixture can be filtered The insoluble solid will be left on the filter paper as the residue While the solution will be the filtrate To retrieve solid substance from filtrate, can perform crystallization or evaporation.

Solute-Solvent Mixture
Crystallization
Used to separate crystals from a saturated solution

Evaporating to dryness
Use to separate solid from its solution

Simple distillation
Used to separate a pure solvent from a solution

Crystallization
Crystallization is the process of cooling a hot saturated solution to obtain crystals is called crystallization One use of crystallization is used to get back the solid substance from a solution Or to obtain pure substances

Saturation
A solution can hold a definite amount of calcium chloride at room temperature. Any extra calcium chloride added to the solution will not dissolve. A saturated solution is one which no more substance can dissolve. If a saturated calcium chloride solution is heated, more calcium chloride can dissolve in it. However, if a hot saturated solution of calcium chloride is cooled, the extra calcium chloride settles out as crystals

Crystallization
In crystallization, a hot saturated solution must be obtained through heating the solution for crystals to start forming

Evaporation
Evaporation is the process in which a solution is heated to drive off the solvent If all the solvent is driven off, it is known as evaporation to dryness The dissolved substance/solute is left when all the water has evaporated
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Simple Distillation

Simple Distillation
Distillation is the process of evaporating a liquid and then condensing the vapour to get the liquid again It can be used to separate a liquid from a solution

Set-up of distillation
The liquid mixture is placed in the distilling flask The thermometer shows the temperature of the vapour The condenser cools and condenses the vapour into a liquid Water for the condenser must enter the condenser from the lower inlet and go out from the upper outlet To ensure that the condenser is filled with water, and effective condensation takes place along it The liquid from the condenser is collected in a conical flask, this liquid is called the distillate The distillate is chemically pure because it does not contain any dissolved substance

Liquid-Liquid Mixture
Fractional Distillation
Used to separate a mixture of miscible liquids whose boiling points are relatively different

Separatory Funnel
Used to separate a mixture of immiscible liquids

Chromatography
Used to separate a mixture of similar compounds in solution

Fractional Distillation

Fractional Distillation
Used to separate a mixture consisting of two or more liquids of different boiling points Fractional distillation can be used to separate a mixture of alcohol and water When a mixture of alcohol and water is heated, alcohol boils and is distilled off at 78C. Water, which boils at 100C is left in the distilling flask

Fractional Distillation
Also used in the separation of liquid air Drinks such as beer, wine are obtained by fractional distillation Petroleum is a mixture of many hydrocarbons which have different boiling points, thus they can be separated using fractional distillation

Separatory Funnel
Used to separate a mixture of liquids that are immiscible Immiscible do not mix to form a homogeneous mixture Example, oil and water are immiscible

Chromatography

Chromatography
Is the process of separating the different solute components in a liquid mixture by allowing the liquid to move through an absorbent medium, such as paper A particle which is more soluble moves faster than a particle which is less soluble The liquid / eluting solvent must be able to dissolve the substance under investigation, otherwise the components cannot be separated

Chromatography
The liquids (solvent) used in chromatography are usually a mixture of some of the following: water, alcohol, acetone, ether etc To recover the pure substance or colour from the paper chromatogram, the bands of the paper are cut and dissolved in the solvent again. The pure substance can be obtained by evaporating the solvent

Advantages and Uses of Chromatography

Only a small amount of the substance under test is required The substance under test is not destroyed in the process Used to find out the different components of ink Or test for amino acids found in urine