Question

How can you separate homogeneous mixtures?

Answer 1

Hint: Homogeneous mixture is a composition which contains uniform distribution of the individual components present in it. Some physical techniques are required to separate such mixtures.

Complete step by step answer:
A mixture is mainly classified as two types one is homogeneous mixture and the other is heterogeneous mixture. A heterogeneous mixture is the one in which the individual components remain as separate but they coexist. A homogeneous system is the one in which the individual components no longer remain as separate but they make a clear solution or are in the same phase.
A heterogeneous mixture is easily separated by physical processes like filtration. A homogeneous mixture is an indistinguishable mixture and it appears as a uniform single phase. Examples of homogeneous mixture include salt solution, tea, coffee or metal alloys.
The key to separate a homogeneous mixture is based on properties of the individual components present in it. The exploration of the properties will provide a suitable route for the effective separation of the components.
For example a homogeneous liquid mixture is a uniform composition of two liquids. The two completely miscible liquids have different boiling points. Thus a distillation process is equipped to separate the two components. The liquid having lower boiling point will distill out first followed by the one having higher boiling point.
The homogeneous mixtures are also separated using chromatographic or evaporation techniques. For example a salt solution which is a homogeneous mixture, on evaporation of water molecules gives the salt. Further in laboratories several chromatographic techniques are used to separate the homogeneous mixture of two compounds. These techniques include liquid chromatography or gas chromatography which is based on the detection of the corresponding mass of the individual compounds.

Note:
The metallurgical processes are equipped for the successful separation of the metals in alloys. For this the alloys are melted until liquefied and thus separated from one another. The common methods used for separating homogeneous mixtures are distillation, chromatography and evaporation.