What is the difference between fractional distillation and simple distillation?
The previous answer is somewhat vague, but on the right track; let me help. SIMPLE distillation uses just a boiling flask, a receiving flask, and a single condensor connecting them. The condensor can be water- or air- cooled depending on the product to be distilled/collected. Simple distillation is best used to separate two (and only two) products that have boiling points that are widely separated (say, 80 deg C or more). FRACTIONAL distillation uses a verticle tube or fractionating column (the tower that schultz mentioned…) usually filled with glass beads or the like. A condensor similar to the one in simple distillation is connected to the side of the column near its top. The idea is for the sample solution to be REFLUXED, or repeatedly heated in the boiling flask only to volatilize, encounte the (cooler) glass beads, and recondense, and fall back into the sample solution, to be redistilled. This does effect a “multiple distillation” of sorts where impurities with lower BPs are vol
