Question

Air is a mixture of many gases, primarily nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. Could distillation be used to separate air into its component gases? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Yes. Air can be separated through fractional distillation. The air must be cooled to a liquid first. Considering nitrogen oxygen and argon all have different boiling points, the liquid air mixture can be heated very gently and carefully in a fractionating column. Each element will eventually vaporise and they can be condensed and collected at different points up the fractionating column because they each have different boiling points.