Lesson 6 of 8

Distillation

Goal: Describe how distillation separates a solvent from a solution.

Puzzles for this lesson

Word search0 of 8 foundCrossword0 of 38 letters
A flask of blue liquid being heated, joined by a sloping glass tube to a beaker of clear liquid

Distillation lets you keep the solvent. The liquid is boiled, and its vapour is cooled until it turns back into a liquid.

evaporate, then condense

  • The solvent evaporates. The dissolved solid stays behind in the flask.
  • The condenser cools the vapour. Cold water runs round the outside of it, so the vapour condenses.
  • Pure liquid drips into the beaker. This is how you get pure water from sea water.

Your turn

This lesson’s activity starts here in a moment.

Check yourself

Knowledge organiser

This lesson on one page. Tap it to make it bigger.

Key words in this lesson

Solvent The liquid that does the dissolving

Solution A solute dissolved in a solvent

Distillation Evaporating a liquid and then condensing it

Condenser Cools a gas so that it turns back into a liquid

For teachers: AQA 3.5.2 · Pearson Edexcel 13.1