Question

Can a mixture of alcohol and water be separated with the help of a separating funnel. If not, why?

Answer 1

• There are different separation techniques depending upon the properties of substances which is to be separated
• One of them is separation using a separating funnel
• A mixture of immiscible liquids can be separated by using a separating funnel
• Since immiscible liquids form separate layers, we can open the stopper in a separating funnel and the lower layer can be separated and the upper layer remains within the separating funnel

Alcohol and water are miscible liquids so we can not take a separating funnel to separate them, but we can use fractional distillation to separate them.