Question

Is it possible to separate a mixture of Ethanol and Toluene by distillation?

Answer 1

Distillation:

1. Distillation is the process of selectively boiling a component in a liquid mixture, followed by its condensation.
2. It is a separation technique that can be used to either obtain (nearly) pure components from the mixture or to raise the concentration of a certain component in the mixture.
3. By pushing one of the components in the liquid mixture into a gaseous state, the distillation process takes advantage of the different boiling temperatures of the liquid mixture's constituents.
4. The mixture of ethanol and toluene can get separated by the process of distillation.
5. This is due to the fact that ethanol's boiling point ($78.{37}^{°}\mathrm{C}$) is much lower than toluene's ($110.6^{°}\mathrm{C}$).
6. Since, ethanol has a lower boiling point it gets evaporated first and gets collected while the toluene is left behind.

Therefore, yes it is possible to separate a mixture of ethanol and toluene by distillation