[crichtonracing]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum. I hope that someone can help me with my question. I'm doing this chemistry program all on my own and I truly feel lost. It's quite upsetting, because I really want to do well on this assignment and as of right now I know I'm going to bomb it. Anyways here's the question:

Design a laboratory setup that would enable you to separate a mixture of three hydrocarbons with different boiling points. Explain the reasons for the apparatus you would need in your setup. Draw and label a diagram of your setup, and develop the procedure you will use to separate the hydrocarbons.

First off, what hydrocarbons should I use, does it even matter? Explain the reasons...I wouldn't even know what to use, I've never done this before. I'm so lost, can anyone give me some guidance.

[ARGOS++]

Dear crichtonracing;

Separation by Boiling point  =   Distillation:
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_distillation  

You may use different "Alkanes".

Good Luck!
                    ARGOS⁺⁺

[lucas89]

Ah you beat me to it! Yeah, use three alkanes/alkenes/basically any hydrocarbon in liquid form, or possibly even solid. Just make sure their boiling points are somewhat different, but not too extreme (temperatures able to be reached in a lab) and you can just use simple distillation. It's easy, cheap, and effective. For better purity, you can even suggest doing a fractional distillation .