Separation of Azeotrope Constituents
Distillation is one of the primary tools that chemists and chemical engineers use to separate mixtures into their constituents. Because distillation cannot separate the constituents of an azeotrope, the separation of azeotropic mixtures (also called azeotrope breaking) is a topic of considerable interest. Indeed this difficulty led some early investigators to believe that azeotropes were actually compounds of their constituents. But there are two reasons for believing that this is not the case. One is that the molar ratio of the constituents of an azeotrope is not generally the ratio of small integers. For example, the azeotrope formed by water and acetonitrile contains 2.253 moles of acetonitrile for each mole of water. A more compelling reason for believing that azeotropes are not compounds is, as discussed in the last section, that the composition of an azeotrope can be affected by pressure. Contrast that with a true compound, carbon dioxide for example, which is two moles of oxygen for each mole of carbon no matter what pressure the gas is observed at. That azeotropic composition can be affected by pressure suggests a means by which such a mixture can be separated.
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