Question

During distillation, some porcelain chips are added to the mixture being distilled to.
A. make the distilling flask more stable.
B. purify the mixture.
C. raise the temperature .
D. make the boiling smoother.

Answer 1

Hint: Porcelain chips are added before distillation in order to assure a nonviolent boiling. These chips help to heat up the solution faster and to create vapours than can rise quicker. This makes the distillation process much quicker, as compared to not adding chips present distillation.

Complete step by step answer:
They are mainly added to the mixture for two reasons i.e., to prevent the superheating of liquid and also to make the distilling flask more stable.
Porcelain chips are also substituted with boiling chips also known as boiling stones or anti-bumping granules. They are minute, unevenly shaped stones. They function by offering nucleation sites so that the fluids can boil quickly without turning superheated. Without porcelain chips, a liquid which is heated in a horizontal container will become superheated cause a bump all of a sudden, occasionally discharging vapour. This sudden discharge of gas can also cause the spilling of solution as well as the reagents out of the container.
Boiling chips are mostly made from absorbent materials like alumina, calcium carbonate or carbon, and they come with non-reactive glaze of Teflon, which makes sure that the boiling chips will offer effective nucleation spots.
Always use porcelain chips when heating a solvent or during distillation. Don’t add a boiling chip to a solvent which is already hot, because this may result in the boiling of solvent violently.

So, the correct answer is Option A.

Additional information:
Distillation is the process of conversion of a liquid into its vapor phase which is again condensed back to its liquid form. This can be used to separate liquids from nonvolatile solids, or in the separation of two or more liquids having different boiling points.

Note: Steam distillation is an alternative method for attaining distillation at temperatures lower than the normal boiling point. When the material to be distilled is immiscible and chemically nonreactive with water it is applied.