Definition for Distillation

From Biology Forums Dictionary

Distillation is the process of heating a liquid until it boils, capturing and cooling the resultant hot vapors, and collecting the condensed vapors. Mankind has applied the principles of distillation for thousands of years. Distillation was probably first used by ancient Arab chemists to isolate perfumes. Vessels with a trough on the rim to collect distillate, called diqarus, date back to 3500 BC.

In the modern organic chemistry laboratory, distillation is a powerful tool, both for the identification and the purification of organic compounds. The boiling point of a compound—determined by distillation—is well-defined and thus is one of the physical properties of a compound by which it is identified. Distillation is used to purify a compound by separating it from a non-volatile or less-volatile material. When different compounds in a mixture have different boiling points, they separate into individual components when the mixture is carefully distilled.