Simple and Fractional Distillation

Lorenzo D. Jimenez, Karen P. Julao, Kyle T. Lansang, Dixee O. Liao,

Bea G. Liscano and Wilfred T. Malabanan
Group 5

2C Pharmacy

Organic Chemistry Laboratory

ABSTRACT
Distillation is a process wherein a liquid is purified and concentrated by means of separation of
its components through heating to its point of vaporization and collection of the condensate in
another container. In this experiment, fractional distillation was used to separate the components
of vodka, which are ethanol and water, and determine the amount of ethanol present in said
sample. About 30 mL of vodka was used for the distillation proper and was constantly heated
until about 20 small-sized test tubes each contained a small amount of the distillate and until the
temperature reached 100 degrees Celsius.

INTRODUCTION
Distillation is a process that separates a
substance or a mixture of substances from a
solution through vaporization. Types of
distillation include simple, fractional, vacuum
or steam distillation. Many industrial
processes depend on distillation, such as
production of gasoline, distilled water,
xylene, alcohol, paraffin, kerosene and many
other liquids. Fractional distillation can be
used to separate a mixture, in this case
vodka, into its component.
EXPERIMENTAL
A. Compounds Tested (or Samples used)
The sample used in fractional distillation is
30 mL of 3.4% of Vodka.

After finishing the set-up, the 30mL vodka

measured in graduated cylinder was put in
the distilling flask with a number of boiling
stones and were constantly heated in a
rotating manner with the use of the alcohol
lamp. Then, the 0.5ml test tubes that have
been prepared were used to collect distillates
while its temperature was also recorded until
it was almost 100 degrees Celsius. The setup was allowed to cool and the volume of the
residue was also measured and taken note
of.
For the flammability test, 3-5 drops of
the first and last distillate were tested by
putting it on the watch glass and lighted a
match to evaluate the sample.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

B. Procedures
1. Distillation Set-up
In this experiment, the group carefully
assembled the fractional distillation set-up.

REFERENCES