Distillation

Distillation is a separative process which involves drying, evaporating or boiling a liquid and redirecting the vapor produced, and condensing the vapor back into a liquid. Because this process proceeds based on the specific boiling/condensing point of the material, it can be used to separate one material from another. It is often repeated with successive iteration having increasing control over the evaporation and condensation temperatures, resulting in successively purer distillates.

Vocabulary

• The source material to be wholly or partly evaporated is sometimes referred to as the mother liquor
• The condensed material is called the distillate
• When the process is finished, any material not evaporated, remaining in the heating container, is called the residue

See Also

• Separative chemistry
• Drying