Now this should be

easy. Give me a
2 hours later… Let me give you a test.
How can you separate
the ice and water from
minute to think about a cup of ice water?
it. HMMM…..

Alright. I give up. To

HMMM….. separate them, you just
have to scoop the ice up
from the cup of ice water
 Lesson Outcomes
• show an awareness of basic principles involved in some
separation techniques
• explain how the properties of constituents are used to
separate them from a mixture
• show an awareness of the applications of the various
separation techniques in everyday life and industries
• show an awareness of the techniques involved in obtaining pure
water from sea water in desalination plants
• use separation techniques (filtration, distillation, paper
chromatography)
• show an appreciation of the systematic investigation involved
in the study of substance
• show an appreciation that water is a precious resource and we
need to conserve it
 Separation Techniques
We are going to study a few separation techniques, which
includes evaporation, magnetic attraction, filtration,
distillation and paper chromatography.
Are you able to fit the above separation techniques into the our
everyday lives and industries?

Drying of clothes Separating tea from tea leaves

Separating gold Identifying colours in candy

We must find a difference in the properties of the
constituents that make up the mixture to be able to
separate them.

For example: how do you separate sulphur and iron?

What is the difference in
their properties

Difference in their properties : non-magnetic and

magnetic material
Choose an appropriate
separation technique

Separation technique: Magnetic attraction

 7.1 Separation by Magnetic Attraction
Separation by magnetic attraction = Uses magnet to
separate magnetic
Mixture of iron and sand
material from
Magnetic separation
non-magnetic material
iron (magnetic object) sand (non-magnetic object)

Examples of magnetic materials: iron, nickel, steel

Examples of non-magnetic materials: copper, gold, silver

Magnetic separation is used in mining industry and in junkyards

It is used to separate iron It is used to separate

from non-magnetic materials steel (reusable metal)
from scrap yards
 7.2 Separation by Filtration
Separation by Filtration = Separate insoluble solids from a
liquid in a solid-liquid suspension
In filtration: insoluble solid (trapped in filter) = residue
fluids (passes through filter) = filtrate
residue

filtrate
Filtration with a piece of filter paper
Raw water
Water purification plant

Filtration is used in water treatment plants where

raw water is filtered by sand filters to remove
solid particles and obtain clear water
Filtered water
 7.3 Separation by Evaporation
Evaporation = Separate dissolved solids (solutes) from a
liquid or solvent in a solid-liquid solution
Salt can be obtained by evaporating seawater.
Through evaporation, the seawater (solution) is heated until
all liquid (solvent) evaporates and leaves the dissolved
solids (solutes) as residue.
Two types of evaporation techniques are commonly used in laboratories
Used when solute evaporating dish watchglass Used when
pipe clay triangle
left behind is not beaker solute is
water
easily tripod stand boiling chips unstable and
decomposed wire gauze decomposes
under tripod stand easily at
Bunsen burner
temperatures Bunsen burner temperatures
higher than higher than
100 °C 100 °C
Boiling to dryness Evaporation using steam bath
 7.4 Separation by Distillation
Distillation = 1. Separate solvent from a solution
2. Separate solutions of two liquids
(based on their different boiling points)
In distillation: a
solution is heated so cooling water out
that its solvent boils When the vapour is cooled,
and escapes as it turns into a liquid.
vapour. The vapour is
then cooled and
condensed into a The solution
cooling
liquid (distillate) is heated
water in

distillate
heat
 7.5 Separation by Paper
Chromatography
Separation by = Separate and identify
Paper Chromatography the different coloured
components in mixtures
Paper chromatography: components in the mixture
which are more soluble in the same solvent travel
further on the chromatography paper.
Different coloured components will appear at
different locations because they travel at different
rates
It can be used for It can be used for
testing food detecting the
colourings to presence of drugs
ensure that a in urine samples
product is suitable
for consumption Go to Video 7.1
• Paper chromatography is often used to
identify rather than to obtain the components
contained in mixtures such as dyes.

• Fractional
distillation can be
used to separate
these components.

Fractional distillation
7.6 Obtaining Pure Water from
Seawater
To meet the increasing demand for water in Singapore, she opened her
first desalination plant in Tuas in 2005.
Desalination = Removing salts and other waste from
seawater to obtain drinking water
Distillation
Undergoes Undergoes
Seawater boiling
Steam condensation
Fresh water

Do you find the above process familiar? It is similar to the distillation

process we conduct in school laboratories.

The process of distillation may be simple

but a lot of heat is produced from the
burning of fossil fuels. Hence, this
method is often very expensive. Desalination plant
 Reverse Osmosis
Another method used in desalination plants is reverse osmosis.
Reverse osmosis: Pressurised seawater is forced through a
partially permeable membrane

The partially permeable

pressure
membrane allows fresh
partially
water to pass through but permeable
not the dissolved salt or membrane
other waste particles.
Fresh water is thus
obtained.

salt and waste

water flow
particles remain
7.7 Obtaining Pure Water from
Used Water - NEWater
Used water undergoes many processes to become NEWater:

Used water
• Solids are removed by filtration
Conventional wastewater
• Dissolved solids are converted into solid
treatment mass and removed by filtration

• Water is passed through membranes to

Microfiltration
remove most solids and bacteria

• Pressurised water passes through

Reverse osmosis
partially permeable membrane
• Water is free from salt and bacteria
UV irradiation • Water is further disinfected by UV irradiation

NEWater