Distillation is a powerful method to separate the constituents of ahomogenous mixture. The distillation technique takes advantage of the difference in boiling temperatures. The reaction mixture is heated to the boiling temperature of the mostvolatileliquid. The most volatile substance evaporates first and vapor is formed in a distillation apparatus. The vapor is then condensed back down to liquid after it passed down the condenser and collected at the end in the collecting flask. This setup is calledsimple distillation. It works well to separate a mixture that contains one volatile component.

Figure 1.蒸馏apparatus. 1. Thermometer; 2. Distillation flask; 3. Heating mantle; 4.Condenser; 5. Cooling water out; 6. Cooling water in; 7. Collecting flask.
The condenser, distillation flask, and thermometer are connected by an adapter (3-way adapter or Y-arm). The mercury bulb of the thermometer is placed in this adapter, at the opening that leads to the condenser, so the bulb is surrounded by the hot vapor, which is crucial for reliable temperature readings. It's possible to connect a source of reduced pressure to the distillation set up, to achievevacuum distillation
The simple distillation is unable to result in pure substance if the mixture includes several volatile components. A more sophisticated distillation is required to obtain the pure substance from a mix with various volatile constituents.