Practice Passage Test - 7 | Practice Passages for MCAT PDF Download

Separations and purifications are crucial techniques in chemistry used to isolate and purify specific components from mixtures. These techniques play a significant role in various industries, including pharmaceuticals, environmental analysis, and food processing. Two commonly employed methods for separations and purifications are distillation and chromatography.

Distillation is a process that relies on differences in boiling points to separate components in a mixture. When a mixture is heated, the component with the lower boiling point vaporizes first, while the component with the higher boiling point remains in the liquid phase. The vapor is then condensed and collected, resulting in the separation of the components. This technique is particularly effective for separating liquids from a mixture.

Chromatography, on the other hand, involves the separation of components based on their differential affinities for a stationary phase and a mobile phase. The stationary phase can be a solid or a liquid immobilized on a solid support, while the mobile phase is a liquid or a gas. As the mixture travels through the stationary phase, the components interact differently with the stationary and mobile phases, resulting in their separation. Various types of chromatography, such as gas chromatography and liquid chromatography, are employed based on the nature of the mixture and the components to be separated.