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What is a mixture?
A mixture contains two or more substances that are mixed
together, but have not chemically bonded with each other.

For example, seawater is a mixture

of water, salt and other substances.

A pure substance contains just one

substance on its own. For example, table
salt (sodium chloride) is a pure substance.

Can you name some different mixtures, and pure substances,

that you might find in your house?

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What are the properties of a mixture?
 The substances in a mixture are not chemically bonded
together. This means that it is usually quite easy to
separate the substances (e.g. to get salt from seawater).

 The proportions in a mixture

are not fixed (for example there
might be lots of salt in seawater,
or very little).

 The properties of a mixture are

often an ‘average’ of the properties
of the substances it is made from
(e.g. a mixture of a red liquid and
a blue liquid is a purple liquid).

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Odd-one-out

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A mixture or a pure substance?

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What is a solution?
A solution is a special type of mixture that is made when one
substance dissolves and mixes fully with another.

For example, a cup of

instant coffee is a solution.

The solid that dissolves (e.g. coffee

granules) is called the solute.

The liquid that does the dissolving

(e.g. hot water) is called the solvent.

How many other solutions can you think of?

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Solvents and solutes
What is the solvent and what is the solute?
substance solvent solute

black tea water tea

orange squash water flavours and sugar

seawater water salt

fizzy drinks water flavours/sugar/carbon dioxide

wine water flavours and alcohol

How many other examples of solutions can you think of?

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Special solutions
Solutions do not have to be made from a solid and a liquid.

Solutions can also be made by

dissolving a gas into a solvent.

For example, it is the dissolved

oxygen in water that allows fish
to breathe.

Liquids can also be dissolved in

other liquids, like alcohol in wine,
and solids can even dissolve in
other solids. For example, some
alloys can be classified as solid
solutions.

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Mixture or solution?

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Does everything dissolve?

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What happens when something dissolves?
Calcium carbonate is not Copper sulfate is soluble
soluble in water because in water because the
the calcium carbonate copper sulfate and water
and water particles are particles are able to
not able to mix. interact and mix together.

water

water

calcium carbonate copper sulfate

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Dissolving in action?

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Conservation of mass
If 10 g of salt is added to 50 g of pure water, what is the
mass of the solution?

+ 

50 g + 10 g  60?g

When the salt has dissolved, you can’t see it any more.
How could you check that the salt is still there?

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How much salt?

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Conservation of mass – extension
If 10 g of salt is added to 50 g of seawater, what is the mass
of the solution?

+ 

50 g + 10 g  60?g

How much salt will be recovered if the mixture is separated

by evaporation?

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Does a solid keep dissolving?

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How does temperature affect solubility?
Does sugar dissolve in cold tea?
It does, but not as much as in a
cup of hot tea.
The sugar is more soluble at
higher temperatures.
The amount of a solute that can
dissolve at a given temperature
is called its solubility.
How does temperature affect the solubility of a substance?

The solubility of a substance usually

increases as the temperature increases.

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Supersaturated solutions
Supersaturated solutions are very saturated indeed.

The solute will stay in solution

until a ‘seed’ crystal is added,
and then it will crystallise out of
the solution very quickly.

When it does this, it gives out

heat energy. Supersaturated
solutions are therefore used
in heat packs.

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Supersaturated solutions in action

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Solubility of gases

Gases are unusual because their solubility decreases when

the solvent gets hotter.

Fish and other organisms that live in water survive by taking

in oxygen that has dissolved in the water.

Some scientists think that

global warming is causing
sea temperatures to rise.

What effect do you think

rising sea levels will have
on the creatures that live
in the sea?

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How could you separate these mixtures?
Suggest some methods by which you could separate out
these mixtures:

 chocolate buttons and raisins

 different coloured sweets
 pebbles and sand
 salt and sand
 mud and water
 oil and water
 gold and iron.

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Separating an insoluble solid
How could you separate an insoluble solid
like sand from a mixture of sand and water?

It is easy to separate
an insoluble solid by
filtering the mixture.

The insoluble solid cannot

pass through the filter paper
but the water can.

The sand that is trapped by the filter

paper is called the residue. The water
that passes through the filter paper is
called the filtrate.

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Filtering apparatus

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Separating a soluble solid
How could you separate a soluble solid, like salt, from a
seawater solution?

To separate a soluble
solid from a solution,
evaporation can be used.

The solution is heated so

that the water evaporates
and leaves the dissolved
solid behind.

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Evaporation apparatus

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Salty water
Where does the salt around the Dead Sea come from?

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Separating salt from seawater
The Dead Sea is a salty
lake, located between
Jordan and Israel.
The Dead Sea contains
some of the saltiest
water in the world!
The Dead Sea is almost
six times more salty than
the ocean, so nothing is
able to live in it and that’s
why it is called ‘dead’.
The heat of the Sun evaporates the water from the Dead
Sea, and the salt that is left behind is collected in salt beds.

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Separating salt from rock salt
We also get salt from rocks called ‘rock
salt’. Rock salt is a mixture of salt with
sand and bits of rock.

Rock salt was traditionally extracted

by hand from underground mines; a
very dangerous process.

Today, rock salt is mined using

earth-moving equipment before
being purified.

How could you use dissolving, filtering

and evaporation to separate the salt
from rock salt?

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Separating immiscible liquids
Liquids that do not mix together are described as immiscible.
Can you think of any examples of immiscible liquids?
On a small scale, immiscible liquids can be separated
by simply removing the top layer using a pipette.

oil +
water

In laboratories, chemists use a separating funnel to separate

immiscible layers.

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Separating miscible liquids
Liquids that do mix together are described as miscible.

An example of this is water and alcohol – these two liquids

mix together easily.

Can you think of

any more examples
of miscible liquids?
+
How could you
separate a mixture
of miscible liquids?

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Distillation
The technique used to separate a liquid from a mixture is
called distillation.
Distillation has three steps:
1. evaporation
2. condensation
3. collection
The solution is heated so that the liquid evaporates and is
turned into a gas. Everything else is left behind.
The gas cools in the condenser and turns back into a liquid,
which can then be collected.
Could distillation be used to make seawater safe to drink?

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Distillation

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Chromatography
Chromatography means colour-writing.

Chromatography is used to separate mixtures of coloured or

non-coloured substances that are soluble in the same solvent.

A spot of the mixture is placed on some filter paper.

In method A, the solvent In method B, the solvent is

is soaked up the paper. slowly dripped onto the paper.

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Chromatography experiment

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Identifying dyes in a mixture
Dots of single dyes are placed alongside a dot of unknown
mixture.

The solvent washes up the paper, and then the pattern of the
dyes in the mixture can be compared with the single dyes.
Which dyes does the mixture contain?

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Which dyes?

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Uses of chromatography
How many uses of chromatography can you spot?

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Which separation technique?

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Separating mixtures

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Glossary

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Anagrams

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Multiple-choice quiz

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