Separating substances

Mixtures, solutions, and solvents

✓ Mixture: more than one substance that are mixed together, and not chemically combined.
✓ Solution: a mixture that a substance (solute) or more disappear in another (solvent).
✓ Sugar and water, is a mixture and a solution. Sugar and salt, is a mixture but not a solution.
✓ Substances differ in solubility from soluble to slightly (sparingly) soluble to insoluble.
✓ A soluble solid usually gets more soluble as the temperature rises (direct proportionality).
✓ Saturated solution: that can hold no more solute at the same temperature.
✓ Aqueous solution: a solution that its solvent is water.
✓ Volatile liquid: that evaporate easily at room temperature like white spirit, propanone and
ethanol so they used as easily dry solvents.

Pure substances and impurities

✓ Pure substance: that has no particles of any other substance mixed with it.
✓ Impurity: unwanted substance, mixed with the substance you want.
✓ Things should be tested for harmful impurities: Baby food, milk powder, vaccines and
medicines, …
✓ Pure substance has a definite, sharp, melting point and boiling point.
✓ Impure substance has:
1) an over range of melting points and boiling points (not sharp).
2) Higher boiling point.
3) Lower melting point.
Separation methods
Method of separation Used to separate Example
Filtration Insoluble solid from a liquid Chalk in water
Crystallization Solute from its solution CuSO4 in water
evaporating all the solvent Solute from its solution Salt in water
Simple distillation Evaporation a solute from a solution Ethanol in water
Fractional distillation Liquids from each other Crude oil
Paper chromatography Different substances from a solution Dyes in water

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✓ Filtration: pouring a mixture (suspension) in a flask through the filter paper on the filter
funnel.
1) Residue: the trapped solid in filter
paper from filtration process.
2) Filtrate: the liquid or water in the
flask from filtration process.

✓ Crystallization: forming crystals of solute from their saturated solutions, the procedure is:
1) Heat the solution to evaporate some of the water (solvent).
2) Check that if the solution become saturated by placing a drop on a microscope slide.
3) Leave the solution to cool so crystals start to form.
4) Remove the crystals by filtering.
5) Rinse the crystals with distilled water.
6) Dry the crystals with filter paper.
✓ Evaporating all the solvent: we use this method when the solubility of substances changes
very little as the temperature falls.
✓ Separating a mixture of two solids: choose a solvent that will dissolve just one of them like:
1) salt and sand:
a) Add water to the mixture, and stir. (salt dissolves).
b) Filter the mixture.
c) Rinse the residue (sand) with water, and dry it in an oven.
d) Evaporate the water from the filtrate (salt solution), to give dry salt.
2) salt and sugar:
a) Add ethanol to the mixture, and stir. (sugar dissolves).
b) Filter the mixture.
c) Rinse the residue (salt) with ethanol, and dry it in an oven.
d) Evaporate the ethanol from the filtrate (sugar solution) over a water bath
because ethanol is flammable.

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✓ Simple distillation: to separate solvent from solution like water from seawater:
1) Heat the solution in the flask. And water vapor rises into the condenser.
2) The vapor condenses to water because the condenser is cold.
3) The water drips into the beaker and called distilled water because It is almost pure.
✓ Fractional distillation: to separate a mixture of liquids from each other depending on the
difference in their boiling points like water and ethanol:
1) Heat the mixture in the flask. At about 78 °C, the ethanol begins to boil a mixture of
ethanol and water vapor rises up the column.
2) The vapor condenses on the glass beads in the column, making them hot.
3) When the beads reach about 78 °C, ethanol vapor no longer condenses on them. Only
water vapor does. So, water drips back into the flask.
4) The ethanol vapor goes into the condenser and condenses and pure liquid ethanol
drips into the beaker.
5) Eventually, the thermometer reading rises above 78 °C a sign to stop heating since all
the ethanol has gone.
✓ Fractional distillation industry:
1) Petroleum industry: to refine crude oil into petrol and other groups of compounds.
The oil is heated and the vapors rise up a tall steel fractionating column.
2) Producing ethanol: The ethanol is made by fermentation, using sugar cane or other
plant material. It is separated from the fermented mixture by fractional distillation.
3) Separate gases in air: The air is cooled until it is liquid, then warmed up.
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✓ Paper chromatography: to separate a mixture of substances
like dyes in black ink. The dyes in the ink travel across the paper
at different rates because they have different solubilities in
water. (The most soluble one travels fastest)
✓ Chromatogram: The filter paper with separated colors.

More about paper chromatography

 The two substances travel over the paper at different speeds, because of their different:
1) solubilities in the solvent (direct proportional).
2) attraction to the paper (inverse proportional).
 Paper chromatography use to:
1) separate mixtures of substances.
2) purify a substance.
3) identify a substance like amino acids:
a) The purpose of using slotted chromatography paper is to keep the samples
separate.
b) For amino acids, a mixture of water, ethanoic acid and butanol is suitable.
c) For amino acids, Ninhydrin is the locating agent to make amino acids show up
(turn purple).
d) Retention factor (Rf) of a compound is always the same for a given solvent, under
the same conditions

distance moved by amino acid

Rf value =
distance moved by solvent

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