Question

Ethanol can be separated from a mixture of ethanol and water by a separating funnel.

• A. True
• B. False

Answer 1

The correct option is B False

Different separation techniques are present depending upon the property of the substance to be separated.

• Separating funnel is used to separate immiscible liquids, which form separate layers.
• When the stopper is opened, the lower layer (higher density) is collected in the beaker and upper layer (lower density) remains within the funnel
• Ethanol and water is miscible to each other, so we can called them as miscible liquids

Miscible liquids can be separated by simple distillation technique (if the boiling point difference is greater than ${25}^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{C}$)

By considering the boiling point of ethanol $\left({78}^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{C}\right)$ and water $\left({100}^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{C}\right)$, the boiling point difference is less than ${25}^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{C}$ so we can use fractional distillation

• The mixture of ethanol and water heated in a distillation flask.
• Vapours of alcohol and water pass through the fractionating column (glass beads), water being the higher boiling point in this mixture condense and falls into the distillation flask.
• The vapours of alcohol pass through the fractionating column, condense and collected in the receiver.

Therefore, the given statement is false.