Azeotropes
Solutions · Chemistry
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Study notes
Why can't distillation produce 100% ethanol from fermented wash? Step 1: Fermented wash (~10% ethanol) distils, enriching vapour in ethanol. Step 2: At 95.6% ethanol, the mixture becomes a minimum-boiling azeotrope (78.2°C). Step 3: Liquid and vapour now have IDENTICAL composition — further distillation changes nothing. Step 4: To reach 100%: molecular sieves (trap water), or add benzene (ternary azeotrope), or pressure-swing distillation. The azeotrope is distillation's brick wall.
Related topics
- Types of solutions and concentration terms
- Vapour pressure of solutions: Raoult's law
- Ideal and non-ideal solutions
- Colligative properties: relative lowering of vapour pressure, elevation of boiling point, depression of freezing point, osmotic pressure
- van't Hoff factor and abnormal molar mass
- Solubility of gases in liquids: Henry's law