Asked by jena

The melting points of peanut oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, and olive oil are 2°C, -11°C, -17°C, and -6°C respectively.

Based on this information, how can one type of oil be separated from the rest in a mixture of all four?

Responses

liquid chromatography

liquid chromatography

paper chromatography

paper chromatography

simple distillation

simple distillation

cooling in a freezer

cooling in a freezer

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Cooling in a freezer.

Rationale: pick a temperature between -6°C and 2°C (for example about -5°C). At that temperature peanut oil (mp 2°C) will be solid while corn (−11°C), sunflower (−17°C) and olive (−6°C) remain liquid. The frozen peanut fraction can then be removed by filtration/decantation (fractional crystallization).

(Chromatography is impractical for bulk nonpolar oils; simple distillation is impractical because triglycerides have very high boiling points and decompose.)