As a chemist, you have numerous methods at your disposal to separate sand and salt. However, the simplest approach involves combining two basic separation techniques we’ve previously discussed: filtration and evaporation. Through filtration, you can isolate the sand from the saltwater solution. And by subjecting the saltwater solution to evaporation, you’ll recover the salt in … Read more
Evaporation is the process through which liquid changes into vapor when heated. (The term vapor denotes a gas that can be condensed easily to liquid). It is one of the basic separation techniques in chemistry, which is majorly used to separate soluble solids from their solvents. For example, sodium chloride (common salt) readily dissolves in … Read more
Decantation Sand is insoluble in water. When you allow a mixture of sand and water to stand, the sand will start to settle at the bottom of the container. After all the sand has settled, you can carefully pour water out into another container with the help of a glass rod, leaving the settled solid … Read more
As discussed in the primary states of matter post, matter can be classified into solids, liquids, and gases. In nature, matter exists often as mixtures in various combinations. The flow chart below represents the various categories of mixtures. Over the years, scientists have attempted to separate the components of various mixtures to obtain pure substances, … Read more
The world would really be boring if each substance existed on its own. Fortunately, substances combine to form mixtures. This implies that mixtures are everywhere around us: Mixtures can be categorized into two main categories with a few exceptions: homogenous and heterogeneous mixtures. Homogenous Mixtures These are mixtures whose constituents are mixed uniformly or … Read more
Some of the substances we come across in our daily lives are pure while others are impure. In science, pure means not mixed with anything else. Each pure substance has distinct properties (such as boiling point, melting point, density, etc) that distinguish it from other pure substances. For instance, all samples of pure water regardless … Read more
A solvent is a substance, typically a liquid, which can dissolve other substances, called solutes, to form a homogeneous mixture known as a solution. Solvents are capable of breaking down the chemical bonds between solute particles, allowing them to disperse and become evenly distributed throughout the solvent. When you add ethanol to water, they mix … Read more