Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Filtration
- Method used for separating a mixture of insoluble solid and liquid (e.g. sand and water)
- Mixture is poured through filter paper
o Filter paper contains many tiny holes
o Water/liquid is able to pass through, big particles are trapped
- Solid trapped in filter paper = Residue
- Liquid passed through filter paper = Filtrate (usually a solution)
Evaporation to Dryness
Crystallisation
- Recovery of a crystalline solid from its saturation solution by allowing the hot solution to
cool to its saturation point
o Example: When a solid, e.g. Copper (II) sulphate dissolves in a liquid, a solution is
formed. When the solution is heated, most of the liquid is evaporated off until a
saturated solution is cooled; the dissolved solute will reappear and can be
obtained easily by filtration.
- Main steps in crystallisation:
o Impure solid is dissolved in a solvent
o Solution is heated to saturation
o Solution is cooled, pure crystals appeared
o Filter out the crystals
o Dry the crystals between two sheets of paper
- If impurities are present,
o if the impurities are insoluble in the solvent, remove them by filtration first before
crystallisation
o if the impurities are soluble in the solvent, it will remain dissolved in the solution
after crystallisation
- Criteria for using crystallisation method:
o Solubility of the solute must vary a lot with temperature e.g. for potassium nitrate,
solubility at 20˚C is 15g/100g of water but solubility at 100˚C is 250g/100g of
water
o If the solubility does not vary appreciably with temperature, the crystallisation
method is not suitable e.g. for sodium chloride, the solubility at 20˚C is 36g/100g
of water and the solubility at 100˚C is only 39g/100g of water
Sublimation
- Definition: a process used to recover a solvent from a solution where the solution is boiled
and the vapour of the solvent condenses by cooling
- Used to purify liquids by converting the liquid into a gas then condensing it into its pure
form.
o The liquid collected is called the distillate
Simple Distillation
- Used to obtain a pure solvent from a solution of a solute (e.g. pure water from sea water)
- To achieve even boiling and preventing too much bumping (frothing and bubbling) in the
flask, anti-bumping granules or boiling chips is added.
- The set-up is as shown in the diagram below:
Fractional Distillation
- By the time it reaches the top, almost pure ethanol is obtained. Ethanol vapour will be
condensed by the cool water as it enter the condensor. The thermometer also registers a
constant temperature of 78oC (bpt of ethanol) when the ethanol is being distilled.
- Water remains in the flask until almost all the ethanol has distilled. The temperature then
rises from 78oC to 100oC. The water starts to boil and passes into the condenser and is
collected as the second distillate.
Separating Immiscible Liquids
There is only one method to separate immiscible liquids: Separating Funnel.
Separating Funnel
- Two or more immiscible liquids with different densities can be separated using separating funnel.
- A typical set-up of the technique is shown below:
- Procedures:
o The mixture of immiscible liquids is poured in
o It settles into two layers as the liquids do not mix
o The tap is opened to let the denser, bottom layer run into a receiver
o The tap is closed and the receiver is changed.
o The tap is opened to let out the top, less dense layer run out.
Chromatography
There is only one method to separate immiscible liquids: Chromatography
Chromatography
Question: If an ink is supposed to have 2 dyes but only one dye is present after a
chromatography test, what can be done to reveal the other dye?
- Make sure that both inks are soluble in the same solvent
- Spray locating agents to show the position of the spots on the paper