The melting points of canola oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, and peanut oil are 10°C, –11°C, –17°C, and –2°C. If you cool a mixture of these oils to 5°C, which one can you separate easily?

Respuesta :

You can separate the canola oil because it turns back into a solid state while the others remain liquid.

Answer: the canola oil.

Explanation:

According to the melting points reported, at 5°C canola oil, whose melting point is 10°C, will freeze (become solid), while the other three, corn oil, sunflower oil, and peanut oil, having melting points several degrees below 5°C, will remain in liquid state.

Therefore, by decantation or filtration, which are processes that permit separate solids from liquids in a mixture, you can separate easily the solid canola oil from the other three liquid oils.

After separating the canola oil, If you continue cooling the mixture and reach a temperature of - 5°C. the peanut oil, whose melting point is -2°C, whill freeze and you will be able to separate it (again by decantation or filtration).

The same operation, cooling a third time until a temperature around 12°C, will permit you to separate the remaining two oils.

As you see, the knowledge of the physical properties of the substances is a useful tool to separate mixtures.