Question Video: Identifying a Piece of Apparatus Used in Fractional Distillation Given a Diagram of the Experimental Setup | Nagwa Question Video: Identifying a Piece of Apparatus Used in Fractional Distillation Given a Diagram of the Experimental Setup | Nagwa

Question Video: Identifying a Piece of Apparatus Used in Fractional Distillation Given a Diagram of the Experimental Setup Chemistry • First Year of Secondary School

The experimental setup for a fractional distillation experiment is shown in the diagram below. What is the name of the piece of apparatus labeled A?

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Video Transcript

The experimental setup for a fractional distillation experiment is shown in the diagram below. What is the name of the piece of apparatus labeled A? (A) Evaporation column, (B) vapor column, (C) fractionating column, (D) boiling column, (E) volatility column.

Fractional distillation is a technique typically used on mixtures that can be separated into two or more fractions and in which the difference between the boiling points of each component is less than 25 degrees Celsius. Let’s clear some space to go through the sequence of steps used in fractional distillation.

First, the mixture is heated in a round-bottom flask by using a Bunsen burner. The component of the mixture with the lowest boiling point will boil first, and its vapors will enter the column labeled A. When these vapors first enter the column, they are not very pure. The purpose of the column is to improve the purity of these vapors. As the vapors come into contact with the glass beads inside the column, the vapors condense and form droplets of liquid. As more vapors move into the column, these droplets of liquid heat up and turn into vapor again. This condensation and evaporation cycle will repeat over and over as the vapors continue to move up the column. Each time evaporation repeats, the vapors are more pure, until at the very top of the column the vapors will be the purest.

The name of this column used in fractional distillation is a fractionating column. The temperature of the vapors at the top of the column is measured using a thermometer. The vapors then pass into the condenser, where they are cooled, at which point they condense into a liquid and are collected in the receiving flask. In conclusion, the name of the piece of apparatus labeled A is a fractionating column, or answer choice (C).

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