Distillation is a typical lab practice for isolating and purifying liquids based on their volatilities indicated by boiling point differences. However, results end up only in the partial isolation of liquids that are present in mixtures.
It is crucial to have clarity on the boiling point concept as well as the boiling points of the constituents of a mixture of liquids. The boiling point of a liquid is equivalent to the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid is comparable to the atmospheric pressure. Once the boiling point has been reached, the partial pressure of all the components contributes to the overall vapor pressure.
Keep going with this blog, and you will learn which lab distillation process is ideal for your requirements. Keep reading!
The Common Laboratory Distillation Processes:
- Simple Distillation
- Fractional Distillation
- Steam Distillation
- Azeotropic Distillation
These are the different types of distillation processes that you will read about below.
Simple Distillation:
This type of distillation is helpful in solving components of liquid mixtures with boiling points that vary by 25 to 30 ^ 0-Celcius. The vapor that is generated goes through a condenser to a collection vessel, where it is liquified. The liquified component won’t be 100% pure. However, it will have a higher proportion of volatile components.
The process has to be stopped whenever the temperature of the vapor starts to rise above the boiling point of the required component. For liquids that have closer boiling points, the collected liquid has to be put through successive phases of distillation.
Fractional Distillation:
Fractional distillation is pretty much similar to simple distillation, and it is quite useful whenever the boiling points of constituent liquids lie in the narrower range. The process has to be repeated, but it takes up place inside the condenser tube.
The best part of this is that it saves you some time over the repetitive simple distillations, and it is quite efficient than going through multiple steps in simple distillations. Going through the same re-distillation is affected repetitively inside the column.
The rising vapor condenses on rings, plates, and packings inside the condenser tube. This gets vaporized because of the rising hot vapor. Every vaporization-condensation cycle improves the vapor with the volatile components.
Steam Distillation:
Steam distillation has to be preferred over fractional distillation. The reason? It is used for the separation of heat-sensitive compounds that degrades on the uncontrolled heating of the solid supports inside the fractionating column. Meanwhile, the steam distillation process promotes the same purpose in a more controlled manner.
The collected distillate comes in two layers, and one is an oily layer and a water layer. It requires further steps to isolate the pure compound. If you’re even in need of lab equipment like Biomek Filter Tips get in touch with us at MBP Inc. It will come in handy for other processes in the lab as well.
Azeotropic Distillation:
Interactions at the molecular level that have liquid mixtures can result in an alteration of the boiling point of the mixture. These mixtures boil at a temperature that is lower or higher than other boiling points of the constituent pure compounds. Once it reaches the boiling point, a constant composition of vapors results, which is distilled over without any separation of the original components.
For instance, ethanol and water form an azeotrope of 86.5% at 78.1^0-Celcius. The azeotropic composition can be changed if any purification is required in the future. You can add potassium carbonate, which is a drying agent for removing the residual water and distilling the ethanol for higher purity levels.
Final Thoughts
Now you know about these laboratory distillation processes, which are ideal for your requirements, go with the one that is efficient and ends up with the results that you want in the processes. Also, if you want accurate results in other processes and samplings, then you can get the best Filter Tips Biomek i5 from our collection. Check out the equipment on our website.
