One of the main differences between fractional and simple is that fractional has the column packing, which in our case was glass beads. These beads made the vapor condensate more. As the vapor …show more content…
As seen in the simple distillation graph, the first few drops were at 74 degrees Celsius, which at first would be odd considering the boiling point of ethanol is approximately 78 degrees Celsius. This is due to the fact that the mixture is a minimum boiling azeotrope (this is discussed in the next paragraph). But, once the temperature rose to 80 degrees, there was a very linear relationship between the temperature and the amount of distillate that was collected. This relationship was due to the fact that there was nothing stopping the impure vapors from condensation directly into the distillate. A similar but notably differently effect took place in the fractional distillation. As seen in the simple distillation graph, the first few drops were at about 74 degrees Celsius. A notable jump is seen starting at approximately 92 degrees Celsius. This is because of the mixture being a minimum boiling point azeotrope and the boiling point of water. There jump shows that the water started to boil out and fill the flask at around 96 degrees Celsius, which is a little lower than the normal boiling point of water at 100 degrees Celsius. So, when the temperature got into the mid 90’s, the distillate was mostly water because most of the ethanol was already boiled off and collected separately in fraction 1 and