Azeotrope

An azeotrope (/əˈziːəˌtroʊp/) or a constant heating point mixture is a mixture of two or more components in fluidic states whose proportions cannot be altered or changed by simple distillation. This happens because when an azeotrope is boiled, the vapour has the same proportions of constituents as the unboiled mixture. Azeotropic mixture behavior is important for fluid separation processes.

Each azeotrope has a characteristic boiling point. The boiling point of an azeotrope is either less than the boiling point temperatures of any of its constituents (a positive azeotrope), or greater than the boiling point of any of its constituents (a negative azeotrope). For both positive and negative azeotropes, it is not possible to separate the components by fractional distillation and azeotropic distillation is usually used instead.

For technical applications, the pressure-temperature-composition behavior of a mixture is the most important. Yet, also other important thermophysical properties are strongly influenced by azeotropy, e.g. the surface tension and transport properties.

Some azeotropic mixtures of pairs of compounds are known, and many azeotropes of three or more compounds are also known.