Question

How to separate alcohol and water?

Answer 1

Fractional Distillation

• To separate Alcohol from water the method of fractional distillation is used.
• In Fractional distillation a liquid is separated from a mixture of two or more liquids.
• Fractional distillation is based on the principle of the difference in boiling points of the liquids in the mixture.
• When the mixture containing two or more liquids is heated, one liquid evaporates before the other.

Separation of Alcohol and Water

• Both Alcohol and Water have different boiling points.
• The boiling point of alcohol is less than that of water.
• The boiling point of water is ${100}^{\circ }C$.
• The boiling point of alcohol is $78.7^{\circ }C$.
• When the mixture of alcohol and water is heated.
• The alcohol is the first one to be evaporated due to its low boiling point.
• Then the vapors of alcohol are allowed to condense and cooled.
• The liquid obtained after this step is collected in a beaker.
• This liquid is alcohol.
• The same procedure is repeated for water.
• Now both the liquids are separated.

Hence, to separate alcohol and water fractional distillation is used.