Question #59c7b

1 Answer
May 18, 2015

A solution is made by a solvent (now we suppose it is liquid) and a solute.

If the solute is solid (not for Iodine or a solid with high vapour pressure) generally you can make the separation allowing the solute to evaporate giving heat or lowering pressure. In the same way you can operate if the solute is a gas.

If the solute is a liquid (for example water and ethanol) it will be useful to use fractional distillation which is only suitable if the two different boiling points aren't in extremely close proximity.

When this difference is too small (for example water and propanol) you can perform the extraction with a suitable solvent (in this case the two liquids must have different polarity) or making one of them adsorb onto a solid.