Fractional Distillation Essay

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Terrall Brooks Organic Chemistry 203 Monday 12:50 pm -4:50 pm Dr. Shaw Fractional Distillation Abstract Distillation is the process of converting a liquid to a vapor, condensing the vapor, and then, collecting the distillate in another container. There are two types of distillation namely, simple and fractional. My group was assigned to perform fractional distillation which aims to separate the components in a liquid mixture having different boiling points. We had to record the temperature and volume collected at 1-mL intervals to compute and determine the unknown mixture we used in the process. The results were Acetone which boiled at 56 degrees and Toluene which boiled at 111 degrees. Introduction/background Distillation is a very know method used to separate liquids based of their characteristics and properties. In order to separate mixtures, heat is applied to the liquids, which have different boiling points, to force them into a gas phase. After, the gas is collected and converted back into a liquid phase; doing this process over multiple times help increases the purity of the product. Or vice-versa the process can be used to convert gases into liquids by changing the pressure or temperatures. Distillation is exercised through many profitable procedures, such as production of gasoline, distilled water, alcohol, kerosene, and many other important liquids. Not to mention there are two different types of distillation simple and fractional. Simple distillation is used in separating liquids with huge differences in boiling points around 70 degrees or more. In this method no distillation column is used. On the other hand, fractional distillation is useful in separating a complex mixture of miscible liquids, such as ethanol and water, into their components in accordance with their boiling points. The fractional

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