An azeotrope is a mixture of liquids that maintains a constant boiling point and composition during distillation. It occurs when the vapor produced during boiling has the same composition as the liquid mixture. Common types include binary, ternary, homogeneous, and heterogeneous azeotropes. Fractional distillation cannot be used to separate the components of an azeotrope, so alternative methods like pressure swing distillation, addition of an entrainer, pervaporation, or vapor permeation are required.
An azeotrope is a mixture of liquids that maintains a constant boiling point and composition during distillation. It occurs when the vapor produced during boiling has the same composition as the liquid mixture. Common types include binary, ternary, homogeneous, and heterogeneous azeotropes. Fractional distillation cannot be used to separate the components of an azeotrope, so alternative methods like pressure swing distillation, addition of an entrainer, pervaporation, or vapor permeation are required.
An azeotrope is a mixture of liquids that maintains a constant boiling point and composition during distillation. It occurs when the vapor produced during boiling has the same composition as the liquid mixture. Common types include binary, ternary, homogeneous, and heterogeneous azeotropes. Fractional distillation cannot be used to separate the components of an azeotrope, so alternative methods like pressure swing distillation, addition of an entrainer, pervaporation, or vapor permeation are required.
An azeotrope is a mixture of liquids that maintains a constant boiling point and composition during distillation. It occurs when the vapor produced during boiling has the same composition as the liquid mixture. Common types include binary, ternary, homogeneous, and heterogeneous azeotropes. Fractional distillation cannot be used to separate the components of an azeotrope, so alternative methods like pressure swing distillation, addition of an entrainer, pervaporation, or vapor permeation are required.
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Azeotrope:
An azeotrope is a mixture of liquids that maintains its composition and boiling
point during distillation. It is also known as an azeotropic mixture or constant boiling point mixture. Azeotropy occurs when a mixture is boiled to produce a vapor that has the same composition as the liquid. The term is derived by combining the prefix "a," meaning "no," and the Greek words for boiling and turning. The word was coined by John Wade and Richard William Merriman in 1911.
In contrast, mixtures of liquids that do not form an azeotrope under any
conditions are called zeotropic.
Types of Azeotropes:
Azeotropes may be categorized according to their number of constituents,
miscibility, or boiling points:
Number of Constituents: If an azeotrope consists of two liquids, it is
known as a binary azeotrope. An azeotrope consisting of three liquids is a ternary azeotropes. There are also azeotropes made of more than three constituents. Heterogeneous or Homogeneous: Homogeneous azeotropes consist of liquids that are miscible. They form a solution. Heterogeneous azeotropes are incompletely miscible and form two liquid phases. Positive or Negative: A positive azeotrope or minimum-boiling azeotrope forms when the boiling point of the mixture is lower than that of any of its constituents. A negative azeotrope or maximum-boiling azeotrope forms when the boiling point of the mixture is higher than that of any of its constituents.
Examples:
Boiling a 95 percent ethanol solution in water will produce a vapor that
is 95 percent ethanol. Distillation cannot be used to obtain higher percentages of ethanol. Alcohol and water are miscible, so any quantity of ethanol can be mixed with any quantity to prepare a homogeneous solution that behaves like an azeotrope. Chloroform and water, on the other hand, form a heteroazeotrope. A mixture of these two liquids will separate, forming a top layer consisting mostly of water with a small amount of dissolved chloroform and a bottom layer consisting mostly of chloroform with a small amount of dissolved water. If the two layers are boiled together, the liquid will boil at a lower temperature than either the boiling point of water or of chloroform. The resulting vapor will consist of 97 percent chloroform and 3 percent water, regardless of the ratio in the liquids. Condensing this vapor will result in layers that exhibit a fixed composition. The top layer of the condensate will account for 4.4 percent of the volume, while the bottom layer will account for 95.6 percent of the mixture.
Azeotrope Separation:
Since fractional distillation cannot be used to separate components of an
azeotrope, other methods must be employed:
Pressure swing distillation applies pressure changes to change the
composition of a mixture to enrich the distillate with the desired component. Another technique involves the addition of an entrainer, a substance that alters the volatility of one of the azeotrope components. In some cases, the entrainer reacts with a component to form a nonvolatile compound. Distillation using an entrainer is called azeotropic distillation. Pervaporation involves separating components using a membrane that is more permeable to one constituent than the other. Vapor permeation is a related technique, using a membrane more permeable to the vapor phase of one component than another.