Title: Experiment 4.1/4.

2: Distillation of a 50:50 acetone/water mixture by simple and

fractional distillation
Abstract: The purification of a 50:50 mixture of acetone and water was achieved using two
methods: simple and fractional distillation. This was done to demonstrate the ability of
separating two volatile compounds from a mixture due to their difference in chemical properties.
The experiment proved simple distillation to be the more accurate technique to separate and
purify liquids.
Experimental
Part I Simple Distillation
1. A simple distillation apparatus was constructed using a 50-mL round-bottomed flask.
2. Three boiling chips were poured into the 50-mL flask followed by 30 mL of a 50:50
mixture containing acetone and water for distillation. A 10-mL graduated cylinder was
used to collect the distillate.
3. The solution was then heated. Temperature for every 1-mL was recorded until 20-mL
were reached, once the temperature reached 100 ˚C, heating was discontinued.
4. The solvent was identified by comparing the constant temperature with the boiling point
of acetone and water.
Part II Fractional Distillation
1. The same apparatus was constructed to perform the fractional distillation.
2. Temperature was recorded per every 1 mL of distillate collected.
3. After 10 mL of distillate were collected and discarded, 10 mL more were collected, and
heating was discontinued when 100 ˚C were reached.
4. A graph showing temperature vs the number of milliliters collected was then created
using the data collected.
Data and Results
Simple vs. Fractional Distillation
Vol of Distillate (mL) Simple (˚C) Fractional (˚C)
1.0 55 54
2.0 56 54
3.0 57 56
4.0 57 56
5.0 58 56
6.0 60 56
7.0 91 56
8.0 95 55
9.0 97 54
10.0 98 97
 Simple vs Fractional Distillation Techinque
120
Temperature of Distillate (˚C)

100

80

60
Simple Distillation
40 Fractional Distillation
20

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Volume of Distillate (mL)

Discussion:
In this experiment the purification of a 50:50 mixture of acetone and water was achieved using
two methods simple and fractional distillation. During this process, the liquid in the distilling
flask is turned into gas as it is heated, the cold condenser then turns the gas into liquid which
ends up in the receiving flask. The receiving flask was also kept cold in an ice bath to readily
condense liquid back into its pure form. Boiling points are dependable on the purity of the
substance being boiled. For a pure liquid compound, the boiling point read on the thermometer
will remain constant throughout distillation. However, during distillation of a mixture of two
liquids, the lower-boiling component will vaporize first at a constant temperature, its boiling
point. The higher boiling component will then follow when its boiling point is reached. A plateau
can be seen for the simple distillation data showing a phase change once the boiling point for the
first component, acetone (boiling point 58˚C) was reached. This initiated the start of the first
pure substance being extracted. The heat then rose again to reach the next pure substance, water
containing a boiling point of 100˚C.
Errors for this lab were primarily process errors such as heating the flask and components too
quickly for the fractional distillation. Temperatures may also not have been monitored as careful
causing the huge jump from 54 ˚C to 97 ˚C. Had the temperatures been more carefully monitored
a more consistent rise could have resulted creating a more consistent curve for the fractional
distillation data. Another source of error could have come from too many air bubbles in the
condenser leading to uneven cooling. Lastly, a major error could have been from unproperly
heating up the sample causing faulty thermometer readings and less data being achieved due to
maximum heat being achieved before 20 mL of liquid were attained.