Separation&Purification Flashcards
Define mixture
- made up 2 or more substance
- not chemically combined
Define pure substance
- made up of 1 single element or compound
- not mixed with any other substance
How do we obtain pure substances from mixtures?
remove impurities
Filtration
- used to separate insoluble solids (suspension) from a liquid
- e.g. sand, clay
Steps/Procedure to take in filtration (separating mixture of water and sand)
- Pour mixture into a filter funnel that is lined with filter paper
- Collect filtrate (water in this case) in a conical flask
- Collect residue(sand), dry it on a piece of filter paper
How filtration works
- filter paper acts as sieve
- insoluble solids cannot pass thru pores, collected on filter paper (residue)
- liquid pass thru pores (filtrate)
Evaporation to dryness
- used to obtain a soluble solid from a solution by heating the solution until all the water has been boiled off
- e.g obtaining salt from seawater
Evaporation to dryness (apparatus)
- salt solution
- evaporating dish
- wire gauze
- tripod stand
- Caution: safety googles to be worn as very hot concentrated liquid can sputter from dish
Evaporation to dryness (solid obtained)
- solid obtained may not always be pure
- when water removed, any soluble impurities left together with solid
Crystallization
- used to obtain a pure solid sample from solution
- many substance decompose when heated strongly e.g. sugar decomposes to water and carbon
- most crystals e.g. copper(II)sulfate crystals give off water, become powder when heated
- in this process, water removed by heating sol
- heating stops at stage when hot saturated sol formed
- sol cool to room temp, dissolved solid turn to crystals
Steps/Procedures to take for crystallization (obtain pure copper(II) sulfate crystals)
- Dissolve impure copper (II) sulfate crystals in water
- Filter to remove any insoluble impurities, collect filtrate (copper (II) sulfate solution)
- Heat copper (II) sulfate sol until its saturated
- leave it to cool and crystallize
- Filter to collect crystals, wash crystals with a little cold distilled water to remove impurities. Dry the crystals between few sheets of filter paper
How to know whether solution is saturated? (crystallization)
- dip a clean glass rod into sol and removed
- small amt of sol on rod
- if small crystals form on rod as sol cools, the solution is saturated
- means that sol is at its saturation point/ crystallization point
Solvent and solute
Solvent: the liquid that dissolves the solute
Solute: substance that is being dissolved
How do we choose a suitable solvent for separating solids?
- diff solids dissolve in diff solvents
- most common solvent: water and ethanol
- to separate a mixture of 2 solids, use a solvent which 1 solid is soluble in and the other is not
- e.g. sodium chloride (table salt) is soluble in water but sand is not, mixture of these 2 substances separated using water as solvent
Separating solids (sodium chloride and sand mixture)
- add water to dissolve sodium chloride (become sodium chloride solution and sand mixture)
- filter the mixture
- filtrate: sodium chloride sol, evaporate to dryness to obtain sodium chloride
- residue: sand + traces of sodium chloride sol, wash with distilled water, obtain sand