Methods of

Purification
Chemistry Notes
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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 -5°
C to -25°C
● 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 35°C to 75°C.
● 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
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 78°C,
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 100°C,
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
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 solid is likely to be pure if it
2. Has a neutral pH value
3. Dissolves completely in water
4. Is colorless
5. Melts at an exact temperature

2. When sugar is dissolved in water

4. Which method cannot be used to prepare crystals?