How can i find the concentration of ethanol in its binary solution with hexane?
Answer Hi Siavash, As you probably know, a binary solution is a mixture of two miscible liquids – meaning they are completely soluble in each other. I think the easiest way to determine the concentration (one that doesn’t require lots of fancy instruments) is to physically separate them by the differences in their boiling points (bp). The bp of ethanol is higher (78.4 deg C) than that of hexane (69 deg C). So, you can boil off the hexane and be left with an almost pure solution of ethanol (there will still be a little bit of hexane left, but probably a small enough amount that your measurement will be reasonable). This is called distillation, and it is often used to purify solvents in labs, but it is also used to purify some beverages (any time the alcohol percentage of a drink is over about 15% – I think, I’m not an expert on liquor! – distillation is used to concentrate the alcohol). To get the best separation, fractional distillation is used. In fractional distillation a condenser f
