AAMC #7 question #18

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Sonyfan08

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The product is about 98% pure, with impurities of Fe, Oxygen, Al and other elements.. Further purification is achieved by halogenating the silicon, purifying the resulting gas by fractional distillation, and then reducing the halogenated silicon compound...

SiCl3H is purified by fractional distillation. Why does this procedure effect a purification?

A)SiCl3H is not water soluble
B) SiCl3H is decomposed by water
C) SiCl3H has a lower boiling point than the solid impurities (correct answer)
D) SiCl3H has a lower melting point than the impurities

The answer explanation says that fractional distillation requires that the components have different boiling points.. I don'[t know how I get the relative boiling points of the other components.. it doesn't state it anywhere in the passage...
 
You don't need the boiling points of the impurities. The point is that it is purification, which implies removal of impurities. For it to work, they must stay in solution while the desired compound boils off. This is just getting use to MCAT thinking.
 
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