Question

A mixture of iron nails, salt, oil, and water is provided to you. Give stepwise methods to separate each component from this mixture.

Answer 1

Let's first understand how the mixture of iron nails, salt, oil, and water will look like. Iron nails are big, heavy component of the mixture which will settle at the bottom. Salt is soluble in water, whereas oil is immiscible in water and will form a layer over it.

So, the mixture can be separated by the following steps-​

(i) Handpicking or by using a magnet: The iron nails can be separated from the mixture by using a magnet. They will get attracted to the magnet and will get separated. They can also be handpicked to separate them from the given mixture.​

(ii) Decantation: Oil floats on water, so it can be decanted easily.

(iii) Evaporation and Condensation: We are now left with the mixture of salt and water. The salt solution can be heated. The water gets evaporated, leaving the salt behind in the beaker. The water vapoours can be converted to liquid water droplets through condensation.