Q.Why is a condenser used in distillation process?
Step 1. During distillation, the liquid in the flask is boiled to convert it into vapour, which then travels through the side arm of the flask.
Step 2. Without a condenser, this hot vapour would simply escape into the surrounding air rather than being recovered as a liquid.
Step 3. The condenser's jacket carries circulating cooling water around the tube through which the vapour passes, cooling the vapour enough that it changes back from gas to liquid (condenses).
Step 4. This condensed, purified liquid then trickles down the condenser and drips into the receiver, which is the entire point of running the distillation — to recover the substance as a pure liquid, not lose it as vapour.
To cool and condense the vapour back into liquid so it can be collected as the distillate
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