Methods of Purification

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Pure substances
A pure substance contains only one type of substance (one type of atom or molecule) A pure solid has a fixed melting point Presence of an impurity lowers the melting point and causes the solid to melt over a range of temperatures
Eg adding salt to ice lowers the melting point to between -5C to -25C

For liquids, any impurity raises the boiling point A pure liquid has a fixed boiling point
Eg. adding salt to water raises the boiling point

Mixtures
Mixtures do not have exact properties as their compositions can vary Mixtures do not have fixed melting and boiling points Eg petrol is a mixture and has a boiling point within the range of 35C to 75C. Mixtures are formed by a physical change only So they are easy to separate into pure substances This process is called purification

Methods of purification
Dissolving, Filtering, Evaporating Suitable only for separating a mixture of solids, where one solid must be soluble in the solvent and the other solid is insoluble in the solvent Eg mixture of salt and sand When water is added to this mixture and stirred, only the salt dissolves The sand can then be removed by filtration, as it collects as the residue in the filter funnel The salt soluble passes through the funnel and is called the filtrate This solution is evaporated to leave pure salt crystals

Methods of purification
Crystallisation When a solid dissolves in a liquid solvent, a solution is produced. If this solution is heated, some of the solvent evaporates. When the hot solution is allowed to cool, some of the dissolved solid reappears as pure crystals. Used to purify sugar and fertilizers like potassium nitrate Crystallisation can be used to purify solids by melting them. When the hot molten liquid cools, crystals form

Methods of purification
Separating funnel Used to separate two liquids which do not mix together (immiscible) Eg water and oil The lighter liquid (oil) collects above the heavier liquid (water). When the tap is opened, the water is run out and the tap is closed before the oil reaches the bottom

Methods of purification
Sublimation Sublimation is the process of changing directly from a solid to a gas without any liquid phase Limited to substances which can sublime Eg can separate a mixture of ammonium chloride and sodium chloride. The ammonium salt changes into a gas and cools back to a solid while the sodium chloride remains in the evaporating dish

Methods of purification
Simple distillation To separate a pure liquid from a solution Eg water from salt water The flask is heated and when the solution boils, steam is given off. This steam is cooled down and condensed in a condenser The condensed water is called the distillate and is collected in the flask The water collected is very pure and is called distilled water In order to maintain even boiling, with not too much bumping and bubbling in the flask, boiling stones are added to the salt water

Simple Distillation

Methods of purification
Fractional Distillation Used to separate two liquids which dissolve in one another miscible liquids The separation relies on the difference in boiling points of the two liquids The fractionating column is normally packed with glass beads or some other unreactive substance to provide a large surface area for condensation

Fractional Distillation
How it works When the flask is heated, the vapour coming off from the mixture will contain both ethanol and water molecules. However, it will be richer in ethanol molecules as these have the lower boiling point. At first, this vapour just condenses on the cold fractionating column, but as this column warms up, molecules in the vapour state rise further before condensing As we go up the column, the temperature becomes lower and so the proportion of the ethanol molecules with the lower boiling point increases When the temperature at the top of the column reaches 78C, molecules of ethanol can survive as vapour and these pass over into the condenser. Water molecules with the higher boiling point condense in the fractionating column and fall back into the flask This continues until most of the ethanol is boiled off When the temperature at the top of the column reaches 100C, water passes into the condenser It can then be collected in a different flask.

Fractional Distillation
In the above example, complete separation is not effected and the ethanol distillate will contain traces of water. These final traces of water can be removed by the addition of a drying agent like anhydrous calcium chloride which is then filtered out to leave pure ethanol Fractional distillation is very useful for separating crude oil which is a mixture of individual miscible liquids such as petrol, paraffin and diesel. These are called fractions of crude oil Fractional distillation can also be used to separate components of liquid air

Methods of purification
Paper Chromatography Used to separate colours, pigments, and dyes, and even colourless substances Principle involved depends on the relative solubilities In paper chromatography, the piece of paper contains water loosely combined with the cellulose of the paper. If a dye is put in small spots at the bottom of the paper, and another solvent is soaked up the paper, the solutes present in the dye dissolve to different extents Some are more soluble in the mobile solvent moving up the paper Others dissolve better in the water trapped in the paper and therefore do not move very far up the paper This difference in solubility allows the different pigments in the dye to be separated

Paper Chromatography

Paper Chromatography
Applications in medicine: proteins may be identified using chromatograms due to amino acids travel different distances with solvents Amino acids are colorless but they can be sprayed with a locating agent to make them visible A locating agent is a chemical which reacts with the substance to produce a visibly coloured product Eg ninhydrin spray which can react with colorless amino acids to produce a purple stain

Testing purity of substance

A pure substance has a fixed melting point
The presence of any impurities will lower the melting point

A pure substance has a fixed boiling point

The presence of impurities will raise this boiling point and also causes the liquid to boil over a range of temperatures

Chromatography: a pure substance shows only one spot on a chromatogram

Questions
1. a. b. c. d. A solid is likely to be pure if it Has a neutral pH value Dissolves completely in water Is colorless Melts at an exact temperature

2. When sugar is dissolved in water a. The solvent is sugar and the solute is water b. A chemical change takes place c. The boiling point of the water decreases d. The resulting mixture is a solution

Questions
3. The technique of paper chromatography depends on the a. Differences in color b. Relative solubilities of pigments c. Types of filter paper used d. Amount of slvent used 4. Which method cannot be used to prepare crystals? a. Cooling a molten salt b. Evaporating a saturated solution c. Filtering a hot saturated solution d. Distilling a mixture of liquids