janine is trying to separate some ethanol from water. which method should she use?
She should use fractional distillation to separate ethanol from water.
Why fractional distillation?
- Ethanol and water are both liquids that mix completely, so methods like filtration or decanting will not work.
- They have different boiling points (ethanol around 78 °C, water around 100 °C), so heating the mixture and condensing the more volatile component (ethanol) allows separation.
- A fractional distillation setup (flask, fractionating column, condenser) lets ethanol vapor rise and condense first, giving a purer ethanol sample than simple distillation.
In many schoolâlevel chemistry questions with this exact wording about ethanol and water, âfractional distillationâ is the expected oneâline answer.
TL;DR: Janine should use fractional distillation, taking advantage of the different boiling points of ethanol and water.
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