Question

Name the processes that you will use to separate solid-liquid mixtures?

Answer 1

We can use techniques such as evaporation and distillation to separate the components of a solid-liquid mixture.

Evaporation:

• The process by which a liquid is converted into its vapor state is called evaporation.
• The rate of evaporation increases with an increase in temperature.
• Evaporation is used to separate a solid component from a homogeneous mixture of solids and liquids.
• The process of evaporation involves heating the solution until the solvent evaporates and turns into gas leaving behind the solid residue.
• For example, we can separate salt from a mixture of salt and water using evaporation. We heat the solution to a boiling point to obtain salt from salt water.
• As the solution boils, the water escapes as vapor and after some time all the water evaporates leaving a layer of salt at the bottom of the beaker.

Distillation:

• Distillation is the process of separating a liquid from its solution by evaporating it and then condensing its vapor.
• The process is carried out in a specially designed apparatus called the distillation flask.
• A solution is heated in the distillation flask due to which the liquid component gets evaporated, leaving the solid component behind.
• The vapor of the liquid pass through a tube called the condenser.
• The condenser is kept cool so that the vapor can cool down.
• Finally, the vapor is collected in a receiving flask. This way, we get pure liquid from its solution.
• The distilled water that is used by doctors, chemists, and pharmaceutical industries is obtained by distillation.