What is the purpose of glass beads in fractional distillation column?
Your text book is correct. The glass beads increase the surface area for condensation. A sort of steel wool is also commonly used (because it doesn’t fall out of the column and whatnot). As the lower boiling liquid boils some of the higher boiling liquid also boils and starts to climb the column. As the higher boiling compound gets farther from the heat source, it is more likely to condense and the glass beads provide the surface area to accomplish this. The higher boiling compound then falls down the column and transfers its heat to the lower boiling liquid which continues up the column in vapor form and later condenses in the condenser tube. This process helps provide for a greater separation of the liquids with the two different boiling points. Compare this process to a simple distillation that does not provide as great a degree of separation.
