We did a lab on fractional distillation and I am unsure what the three fractions were. I think the first one is ethanol, and the third one is water, but I'm unsure what the middle one is. Would it be an ethanol/water compound? What do you think it would be? Thanks so uch for explaining this.

Answer 1

What were you distilling? Ethanol and water forms an azeotrope of about 95% ethanol/5% water and when the mixture reaches that proportion, the 95/5 stuff is what distills.