Reading Integrated Chemistry Today (2nd Ed.), L.H.M Chung, Book 1A, pg 202 – 215
Assignment
Most naturally occurring materials are mixtures. e.g. sea water is a mixture of water and salt, air is a mixture of
different kinds of gas. Usually, a material must be purified before it can be used. e.g. sea water is not drinkable but
distilled water is.
Different kinds of purification technique / separation methods are required to purify different mixture. They also
provide us the opportunity to experience different kinds of laboratory technique.
In a mixture, different substances still retain their own physical properties. By using these differences in physical
properties, different components may be separated.
e.g. salt solution - salt NaCl (b.p. 1413 ºC) and water H2O (100 ºC) have very different boiling points. Therefore,
they can be separated by either evaporation, distillation or fractional distillation.
However, before you can choose an appropriate method, you must be very familiar with the properties of
individual components in the mixture.
Sometimes, more than one method would be used together to separate a mixture. For example, to separate a
mixture of sand and salt, dissolution, filtration and evaporation would be required to obtain the pure salt.
1. Filtration
2. Decantation
3. Centrifugation
Although mud is denser than water, the difference is so small that mud does not settle down by itself upon
standing. A centrifuge creates a gravity larger than normal. By putting the mud solution into a rotating centrifuge,
the mud particles will settle down at the bottom.
5. Evaporation
Since salt (1413 ºC) has a much higher boiling point than water (100 ºC), when salt solution is heated, only the
water will evaporate and the salt will be left behind.
V. Separation Technique Page 4
6. Distillation
7. Fractional distillation
8. Sublimation
9. Crystallization
A. Crystallization by cooling of saturated solution
The amount of solute that can be dissolved is
depending on the temperature of the solvent and the
volume of solvent.
B. Testing of purity
Example 1
Pure ice melts at 0ºC but a mixture of salt and ice melts at
about -20ºC to 25ºC . This phenomenon is called
depression of melting point by an impurity.
Example 2
Pure octadecan-1-ol melts at 58ºC and pure napth-1-ol
melts at 120ºC.
Experimentally, pure octadecan-1-ol will start to melts at
57.5ºC and when the temperature reaches 58.5ºC, all solid
will be melted.
If it is mixed with a little napth-1-ol, the mixture will start
to melts at 50ºC and will melts completely at 55ºC.
By knowing whether a substance melts sharply or not, the purity of the substance can be tested. A pure substance
only has a very narrow melting range.
Past Paper
Questions
90 30
A 30 Which of the following methods can be used to obtain
sodium chloride from a solid mixture containing sodium
chloride and ammonium chloride?
A. heating
B. adding water and filtering
C. adding sodium hydroxide solution and filtering
D. adding silver nitrate solution and filtering
93 42
B 42
98 26
B 26 Some physical properties of a compound X are listed below:
melting point : 82°C
boiling point : 221 °C
solubility in water: soluble
Which of the following is the most appropriate method to
obtain X from a solution of X in water ?
A. decantation
B. crystallization
C. fractional distillation
D. paper chromatography