Question

You are part of a police unit that has found a powder in a suspect's home. You think it might be a new drug called XYZ. XYZ is an ionic compound that dissolves in water. However, what you think might be a drug may just be salt. Unfortunately there seems to be iron fillings and sand mixed in with the white powder. Your job is to isolate the white powder before sending it to the police lab to be tested to determine if it is salt or XYZ. Give step by step directions on exactly how you will separate your mixture of white powder, iron fillings, and sand.

Answer 1

The steps in the separation include;

• Use of magnet
• addition of water and filtration
• Evaporation

Separation techniques

Separation techniques has to do with how to obtain a substance in the presence of other substances. In this case, we have the substance XYZ mixed with iron filling and sand.

The separation process begins by using a magnet to remove all the iron fillings. Secondly, water is added and the substance XYZ dissolve in water since it is ionic. The sand can be separated form the solution by filtration.

Lastly, the solution is evaporated and the pure XYZ is obtained and sent to the police lab for analysis.

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