BB3

Pure Substances & Mixtures

Separating Complex Mixtures Report
Tushar Sood & Suvasan Krishnasamy

2014

# 13

#17

Table of Contents
Title Hypothesis Materials Procedure Observations Comparisons Conclusions EXTRA: Nelson Science 7 Experiment Questions Page Number(s) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8-9

Hypothesis
Would our procedure be the best way to separate the mixtures?
We hypothesize that the procedure to separate the mechanical mixture is the best way to do so. We think this because, the items in the mixture have qualities (i.e. Magnetic) that can be taken advantage of by using certain tools (ie. Liquid quality sieve). We hypothesize that the procedure to separate the solution is not the best way to do so. We think this because, in order for the two substances to separate using our procedure, the water turns into a gaseous state of matter from a liquid state. Although, we do believe that this is the fastest way to separate the mixture.

Materials
Mechanical Mixture
Mechanical Mixture o cup room-temperature water o 1 tbsp. Canola oil o 7-8 Small, Thin Nails o 1 piece of paper cut into squares (approximately 1cm x 1cm) Sieve 4 Containers Strong Magnet Spoon Paper and pencil to record

Solution
Solution o 1/2 cup room-temperature water o 3 tbsp. white sugar Pot Stove Paper & Pencil to record

Procedure
Mechanical Mixture
1) First, prepare your materials and create the mechanical mixture (put it into 1 container). 2) Next, use the sieve to separate the nails and paper from the oil and water. Be sure to contain both mixtures in separate containers. 3) Then, record your observations for what is happening in the oil and water mixture. 4) Now, decant the oil from the top of the mixture and put the oil in a separate container. 5) You have now successfully separated oil and water. 6) Now, in the second mixture, use the strong magnet to lift the nails out of the mixture and put them into another container.

Solution
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) Prepare your materials. Put the half cup mixture into a pot. Turn on the stove on medium heat (DO NOT OVER HEAT OR MIX!) Allow the mixture to boil making the water evaporate. Monitor boiling process. When most water has evaporated, record your observations. You should now have a gaseous state of water and black crystalized sugar.

Observations
Mechanical Mixture
When we separated our mechanical mixture we separated the oil, water, paper, and nails. We used a sieve to separate the paper and nails from the oil and water and all of the water and almost all of the oil made it through the sieve. All of the oil didnt go through because some was sticking onto the nails and paper. We think this happened because of the consistency of the oil. We separated the oil and the water by pouring the oil into another container because all the oil was coming to the top. This is because the oil ways less than the water which therefore makes it buoyant and came to the top. When we separated the nails and paper we used a magnet. We moved the magnet over the nails and only the nails got attached. This is because the nails were magnetic and the paper wasnt, therefore when we moved the magnet over only the nails stuck to the magnet, then we put the nails into another container.

Solution
During the separation of the water and sugar solution, we found things to be unusual and some to be according to our hypothesis. The observations that we recorded were that the sugar was somewhat separating from the water during the boiling process, the solution started to produce a very strong, distinct odour, and when the separating procedure was done, a dark brown/black substance (crystalized sugar) was on the bottom and there was barely any moisture left from the water. Our first observation was that the sugar was somewhat separating from the water during the boiling process. As the fourth or fifth minute of boiling was approaching, the sugar had acted like oil and made little boiling bubbles of its own. We thought this was very unusual because sugar is a soluble solute. This means that the sugar shouldve dissolved in the water but yet, it separated slightly. After about thirty seconds of this, the sugar bubbles dissolved into the water once again. Our second observation was that the solution started to produce a very strong, distinct odour. We think this mightve happened because the sugar started to burn. The odour mustve been the burning smell, which was strong because the sugar had little moisture in it. This was very much expected although, the solution kept on boiling. Our final observation was that a black, smelly, dry substance was on the bottom of the pot by the end of the experiment. This was a slightly burnt form of crystalized sugar. After this, we knew our experiment was successful.

Comparing
Comparing Separation Methods
The separation methods we used for our mechanical mixture were magnets, decanting, and a sieve. For our solution we used distillation. We realized from our solution experiment that separating the oil and water with distillation would be more accurate as like our solution of sugar and water because there was still a little oil remaining in the water. However, all of our materials were appropriate (distillation would be more).

Comparing Observations
The experiments we did were separating a solution of sugar and water and separation a mechanical mixture of water, oil, nails, and paper. Both of our experiments went successfully in terms of being separated. The mechanical mixture was a physical change/reaction because, nothing changed but the location of the matter. The solution was a chemical change/reaction because the separation formed a new substance (crystalized sugar) and it was a physical change because the water went from liquid to gas.

Conclusion
Our experiment was encompassed of two different experiments and the comparison between the ways we separated each mixture or solution. We separated the mechanical mixture using the methods of decanting, magnetics, and filtering. We separated the solution using the method of evaporation. We believe that our hypothesis was mostly correct; these separation methods were the best at most times. What we mean by this is that the methods of magnetics, filtering, and evaporation (pretty good) were the best separation methods, in our opinion, but decanting was not. We think that the method of using magnets was the best way to remove the nails in the mechanical mixture because, this created virtually no mess, was efficient, and used the magnetic ability of nails to our advantage. We believe that the method of filtering was the best way to remove the liquids from the mechanical mixture because, it was easy, took little time, got the job done, and it used the quality of liquids (takes shape of the container) to the advantage of the separation. We predicted and now believe that the separation method of evaporation was pretty good because, it separated the sugar and water although, it made the water a gas instead of keeping it a liquid. We didnt believe that decanting was a good way to separate the mixtures because, a bit of water was spilled over into the oil container and a bit of oil was left over in the water container. Our hypothesis was expected. This was because, we knew that we may have forgotten about certain separation methods that would work better for the scenario. As we outlined before, decanting was not the greatest way to separate mixtures but that was okay. We have now learned that this is the case and so, in future separation experiments, we will take this into account. Our experiment worked the way we wanted it to but we couldve been safer when doing it. We shouldve wore gloves since we were dealing with heat, although it wouldnt have been needed to wear goggles since we knew that nothing was going to splash in our eyes. We knew that because, we were far away from all liquids that could do so when heated, and we knew that water doesnt splash, unlike oil. In conclusion, our experiment was a double experiment including a comparison, our hypothesis was mostly correct and expected, and our experiment worked the way we wanted it to but we couldve been safer when doing it.

Nelson Book Questions

Separating a Complex Mixture Page 77
Analyze and Evaluate
a) What components did your mixture contain? How do you know? The components our mechanical mixture contained were paper, nails, water, and oil. We knew this because we made it. If we didnt make it, we couldve found this out by seeing the paper and nails, noticing a yellow substance coming to the top of the mixture, and the clear substance having no scent (making sure its not vinegar). b) Which separation method(s) did you choose for each component? Were these methods appropriate? Why or why not?

We used the separating methods of: filtering, using magnets, and decanting. For our solution, we used evaporation. We thought the methods for the mechanical mixture were most appropriate. This is because for separating the nails and paper from the water we used a sieve which is very easy to find and use and did not need anything to the extremes like laboratory work using machines. Also, decanting was the best way to separate oil and water also because there is no laboratory work necessary, and although we could have boiled the mixture the oil (which would have been more accurate) was already on top of the water so it was simple to just pour it of the top. We used a magnet to separate the magnetic nails from the paper, this was most appropriate because it is much more simplistic to use a magnet and wave it over the nails rather than to pick all of them out. Our methods for the solution of sugar and water which was distillation was also appropriate because, you cant individually pick out every single grain of sugar from the water and with distillation the sugar would crystalize on the sides of the pot making it easy to separate and the water would evaporate without any complicated contraptions.

c) If you were to repeat this activity, what would you do differently? If we repeated our experiment we would change the method we used to separate the oil and water which was decanting. This is because when we decanted the oil from the water there was still some oil in the water. Decanting is when you pour the liquid off the top of the other liquid which isnt very accurate and is approximate. In replace of decanting we could use distillation which is when you separate with a boiling point. d) Not Applicable
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Apply and Extend

a) Suggest an industrial process in which a complex mixture has to be separated. What separation methods could be used? An industrial process that can be used to separate a complex mixture is separation. The separation methods that could be used may be the flotation process, evaporation, etc. This is used widely with wastewater treatment and mineral processing industries.