Ways to Separate the Components of Mixtures

An important property of compounds is that chemical processes are required to separate the elements that make up a compound. Mixtures are different. The components of mixtures can be separated using physical processes. Examples of physical processes include the following  

Gaseous diffusion, in which mixtures of gases are separated by making use of the differences in speed in which gases of different weights travel through a container 

Mechanical separation, such as picking bits of gravel out of a pile of sand or using tweezers to separate salt crystals from pieces of pepper. 

A mixture does not require a chemical reaction to separate its components. The components of a mixture can be isolated by physical processes. Cooling air sufficiently causes each gas to liquefy at a particular temperature. Evaporating saltwater removes the water and leaves the salts behind. Tweezers can be used to separate sand from gravel, or salt crystals from pepper. 

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