Seperating Chemical Mixtures

What method is used to separate an insoluble solid from a liquid or solution?

Example: Separating sand from water; straining pasta; brewing coffee (coffee grounds from liquid coffee).

Filtering

Question: What method is used to separate a liquid from a solution containing a dissolved solid (by boiling and condensing)?

​Examples: Obtaining pure water from seawater; separating salt from a salt solution.

Simple Distillation

What method is used to separate a mixture of miscible liquids with different boiling points?

​Examples: Separating crude oil into fuels like gasoline, kerosene, and diesel; separating ethanol from water.

Fractional Distillation

What method is used to separate mixtures of soluble substances based on their different solubilities and rates of movement through a medium?

​Examples: Separating pigments in ink or plant dyes; testing for drugs in urine; analyzing food dyes.

Chromatography

What method is used to produce solid crystals from a solution by cooling down the solute?

​Examples: Producing table salt (sodium chloride) from brine; making rock candy (sugar crystals).

Crystalization

What method is used to separate magnetic materials from non-magnetic materials?

​Examples: Removing iron filings from sand; separating steel cans from other trash in recycling plants.

Magnet Seperation

What method is used to separate two immiscible liquids (liquids that do not mix)?

​Examples: Separating oil and water; extracting an organic compound from an aqueous solution.

Seperating funnel

What method uses high-speed rotation to separate components of a mixture based on density?

​Examples: Separating blood components (plasma, white/red blood cells); spinning wet clothes in a washing machine to remove water.

Centrifugation

What method is used to separate a solid that sublimes (goes directly from solid to gas) from one that does not?

​Examples: Separating iodine from sand; separating ammonium chloride from a mixture with sodium chloride.

Sublimation

What method involves allowing a mixture to settle and carefully pouring off the top liquid layer?

​Examples: Separating water from mud (after the mud settles); pouring oil off the top of water.

Decantation

What method is used to separate a dissolved solid from a liquid solvent by heating the mixture until the solvent turns into vapor, leaving the solid behind?

​Examples: Recovering table salt from seawater in salt pans; removing water from sugar syrup to concentrate it.

Evaporation