Separation of sulfur, salt, iton fillings and sand.

Objectives:

- To separate the solid reagents by the use of different separating techniques.

- To discover what separating techniques is applicable to each reagents basing on their physical
properties.

Materials:

- Conical flask

- Magnet

- Filter paper

- Funnel

-Tripod stand

- Wire gauze

- Alcohol lamp

-Glass stirring rod

- Beaker

-Evaporating dish

-Paper towel

-Crucible tong

-Petri dish

-Spoon

-lighter or fire match plastic

Reagents:

Sulfur

Sand

Salt

Iron fillings
Water

Procedure:

1. Take a petri dish and mix some half tablespoon of sand, salt,sulfur and iron fillings.

2. Get the magnet and wrap it with a thin plastic. Then hover the wrapped magnet across the surface of
the mixture to separate the iron fillings from the mixture. (The iron fillings will get attracted to the
magnet while the sand, salt and sulfur will left behind.

3. After that transfer the iron fillings to another container. ( If there are still other reagent added to the
iron fillings repeat procedure no. 2).

4. Next transfer the mixture to the beaker then add for about 50 ml of water to the mixture.

5. Stir the mixture thoroughly. Wait for a few minutes until all the sand particles settles down qt the
bottom of the beaker. ( You can see the that some of the sulfur particles doesn't mix with the water at
this part we will use the decantation method to remove the sulfur particles from the mixture.)

6. Slowly tilt the beaker then remove the floating sulfur particle( use a spoon to get the sulfur) Then
transfer it to another container (petri dish).

7. Next separate the remaining mixture of sand, water and salt using the filtration method.

8. Get the filter paper and fold it into four then make it into a cone shape, after that put the filter paper
in the funnel with attached beaker to receive the filtrate. ( here you can see the sand is insoluble in
water and is bigger in size that's why it remains in the filter paper, and this is called the residue).

8. Next transfer the residue to another container (petri dish).

9. The filtrate or the mixture of salt and water can be separated by using the recrystallization process.

10. Transfer the mixture of salt and water into the evaporating dish and place it on the tripod stand.
Light the alcohol lamp under the stand.

11. Heat the mixture, until the water evaporates completely.

12. Then allow the residue(salt) To cool down for some time.

13. Collect the salt from the evaporating dish and transfer it from other container.

Result and discussion:

Reagent Soluble or Magnetic or non-

 insoluble in water magnetic material

Salt Soluble Non-magnetic

Sulfur Insoluble Non-magnetic

Sand Insoluble Non-magnetic

Iron Fillings Insoluble Magnetic

The salt dissolves in water.

The sand is insoluble in water

The iron filling is attracted to the magnet

The sulfur can be separated in the mixture by theuse of decantation process.

Conclusion:

The mixture of sand, salt, sulfur and iron fillings can be separated by using different lab techniques and
by just basing on their physical properties.

-Sand is insoluble in water.

- Iron fillings is attracted to magnet therefore iron fillings is a ferromagnetic material.

- Iron fillings can be separated from the mixture by using the magnetic separating technique.

-When the mixture of salt and water are heated it causes the physical property of the water to change,
from liquid state to gas state by the process of evaporation and as there are no water particles to hold
the salt particles, it results to the recrystallization of the salt.