A student by chance mixed acetone with alcohol. This mixture of acetone and alcohol can be separated by:

Acetone and alcohol (ethanol) are miscible liquids, meaning they dissolve in each other in all proportions to form a homogeneous mixture [c2][t8]. The standard technique for separating a mixture of two or more miscible liquids is fractional distillation [t2][t3]. This process relies on the difference in the boiling points of the components [t1][t10]. Acetone has a boiling point of approximately 56°C, while ethanol boils at about 78°C. During fractional distillation, a fractionating column allows for repeated evaporation and condensation cycles, effectively separating liquids even when their boiling point differences are relatively small [t9][t10]. Other methods like filtration or separating funnels are unsuitable because they are used for solid-liquid suspensions or immiscible liquid phases (like oil and water), respectively [t6][t8].

Sources

1. [1] Science , class X (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 4: Carbon and its Compounds > 4.4.1 Properties of Ethanol > p. 72
2. [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/fractional-distillation