What is Decantation and How does it work?
Our mothers have separated stones and husk from rice and pulse grains in the kitchen.The visible impurities are easy to remove with hand picking.What do they do for mud and dust?The upper layer of dirty water is thrown out when the water in the vessel is poured.The separation of solid impurities from liquid solution is called decantation.
Decantation is the process of removing the liquid layer from the solid or liquid below.After pouring out the top layer, the process can be carried out by tilt.This process can be used to separate two liquids that don't mix with each other.When we leave the mixture of oil and water, two separate layers are formed, with water at the bottom and oil being lighter.We can remove the oil layer from the top by pouring it into another vessel, which leaves us with the water layer at the bottom.
Thin layer of the remaining oil cannot be easily procured from the mixture, so this process is not very efficient.The separating funnel is used to make the procurement easier and the separation more efficient.
The bottom layer is collected first and the layer above is made to remain in the vessel with the help of a stop cock.
One of the components of a mixture can easily be separated by this process.Where the particles don't settle, what can we do?Even after the process of decantation is complete, the water sample still looks muddy.The process of loading is used for such mixtures.
The process by which a mixture of liquids and liquids containing small particles is separated is called loading.
After some time, a layer of mud settles at the bottom of the vessel and the water becomes clear, if we take a slightly muddy sample and add some alum to it.The mud settled at the bottom because the alum got stuck to the small bud particles and made them heavier.This process is used for water purification.
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