What Is An Azeotrope

Phase diagram of azeotropic distillation. (Source: Wikipedia.org)

An azeotrope (gK /əˈziːəˌtrəʊp/, US /əˈziəˌtroʊp/) or a constant boiling point mixture is a mixture of two or more liquids whose proportions cannot be altered or changed by simple distillation. This happens because when an azeotrope is boiled, the vapour has the same proportions of constituents as the unboiled mixture. Because their composition is unchanged by distillation, azeotropes are also called (especially in older texts) constant boiling point mixtures.

Many azeotropic mixtures of pairs of compounds are known, and many azeotropes of three or more compounds are also known. In such a case it is not possible to separate the components by fractional distillation. There are two types of azeotropes: minimum boiling azeotrope and maximum boiling azeotrope. A solution that shows greater positive deviation from Raoult's law forms a minimum boiling azeotrope at a specific composition. For example, an ethanol-water mixture (obtained by fermentation of sugars) on fractional distillation yields a solution containing approximately 95% by volume of ethanol. Once this composition has been achieved, the liquid and vapour have the same composition, and no further separation occurs.

In chemistry, azeotropic distillation[1] is any of a range of techniques used to break an azeotrope in distillation. (Source: Wikipedia.org)