How Do Heating and Pressure Influence Distillation Separation?

AI Thread Summary
Heating a solution slowly during distillation enhances separation by allowing more time for vapor to condense and re-evaporate, facilitating multiple cycles before reaching the second boiling point. Conversely, lowering the pressure above the solution decreases separation because it raises the vapor pressures of both components, potentially reducing the difference in boiling points and leading to quicker evaporation of both substances. This results in less time for effective separation as the higher boiling point is reached faster. The discussion highlights the importance of controlling heating rates and pressure in achieving optimal distillation outcomes. Understanding these principles is crucial for effective separation in distillation processes.
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I'm having trouble understanding why 1) Heating a solution more slowly would increase separation in a distillation and why 2) Lowering the pressure above the solution, i.e. with a vacuum, would decrease separation.

Distillation depends on you collecting one component before the second component and condenses right? So if you decrease the time from when you hit the first boiling point and the second one, then youre decreasing separation.

1) Heating it up slower increases separation?
Is it that heating it slower, i.e. with less energy per unit time, means that it will stay at the first boiling point longer giving the vapor more time to condense and then evaporate again and recondense in the fractionating column? Versus if it was heated at a much higher rate/energy per second, then there wouldn't be time for as many condensation-evaporation cycles to occur BEFORE the second boiling point was reached and the distillation was over.

Distillation depends on you collecting one component before the second component evaporates and condenses right?

2) Why lowering the pressure above the solution would decrease the separation.
As i understand it, lowering the external pressure will increase the vapor pressure for both of the components, thus the boiling point should go down for both of them. Does this decrease separation because they decrease in boiling point by different amounts?Because otherwise, if the separation in BP was the same just at a lower temperature i don't see how that would change anything.
 
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for 1) I think you've got it right.
for 2)
I am not 100% sure about this, but my guess is the difference in vapor pressures decreases as the pressure drops. The other argument though, is that you'll reach the higher boiling point faster meaning less time boiling the other component out.

I hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
elegysix said:
for 1) I think you've got it right.
for 2)
I am not 100% sure about this, but my guess is the difference in vapor pressures decreases as the pressure drops. The other argument though, is that you'll reach the higher boiling point faster meaning less time boiling the other component out.

I hope this helps.
Ah I see that makes logical sense. Thank you!
 
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