Distillation is a method which is mainly used for separating different liquids in a mixture which have very different their boiling points.

It can also be used for separating volatile liquids from non volatile impurities.

There are two kinds of distillation methods widely used in the industries for purifying organic compounds as mentioned below-

1. Fractional distillation: It is the process in which the components of mixture are separated by heating the chemical mixture. Boiling point plays a vital role in fractional distillation. The component with lower boiling point vaporizes first and then the components with higher boiling points. In this way the components of the mixture gets separated one by one.

2. Steam distillation: In this method substances which are steam volatile and immiscible with water can be separated. It lowers the distillation temperature of the organic compounds which are immiscible with water having high boiling point.