What's the difference between "distilled" and "purified"?

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Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]What's the difference between "distilled" and "purified"?[/nq]
Chemically, distillation is one means of purifying a mixed liquid (by using heat to selectively evaporate the most volatile component(s), and then condensing that back to a liquid).
Metaphorically, "distilled" seems to mean "highly purified". There can be metaphorically distilled ideas, emotions, etc.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]What's the difference between "distilled" and "purified"?[/nq]
Distitllation is one process of many for purifying.

** DAVE HATUNEN (Email Removed) ** * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow * * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]What's the difference between "distilled" and "purified"?[/nq]
On the labels of water bottles, "distilled" indicates the highest degree of purity, "deionized" the next highest (some anionic chemicals may remain), and "purified" everything below that (both ionic and anionic chemicals may remain).
In other contexts, they might suggest nearly opposite processes. "Purify" suggests that you're starting with something that's mostly one substance and removing a relatively small amount of impurities from it. "Distill" suggests that you may be starting with a complicated mixture and extracting a small amount of one substance from it, leaving most of the original mixture behind as waste.
¬R

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What's the difference between "distilled" and "purified"?[/nq]
[nq:1]On the labels of water bottles, "distilled" indicates the highest degree of purity, "deionized" the next highest (some anionic chemicals may remain),[/nq]
In the days when I did the sort of chemistry where this mattered, it was the other way round: deionized water was generally considered to be purer than distilled water, but maybe we were wrong, because your explanation sounds plausible, though your word "anionic" isn't if any anions remained the the same number of cations would as well; otherwise it would explode. You mean "non-ionic".
You can recognize a chemist by whether they know how to pronounce "unionized" in a chemical context. "Periodic" is another nice word, because it has two complete different meanings in chemistry, one pronounced the way everyone pronounces it, the other quite differently.
[nq:1]and "purified" everything below that (both ionic and anionic chemicals may remain). In other contexts, they might suggest nearly opposite ... and extracting a small amount of one substance from it, leaving most of the original mixture behind as waste. ¬R[/nq]
athel

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]In the days when I did the sort of chemistry where this mattered, it was the other way round: deionized water was generally considered to be purer than distilled water, but maybe we were wrong,[/nq]
or maybe your lab's source of distilled water just wasn't very clean? (I never even had the choice in our FA lab, we didn't keep distilled water around at all but had DI water on tap.) If you weren't buying it at the drug store, it didn't have to meet the FDA's labeling criteria. Buy a bottle of DI water and a bottle of distilled water and run each through your humidifier or iron, and you'll see the difference.
[nq:1]explanation sounds plausible, though your word "anionic" isn't[/nq]
Oh, I'd call it plausible ("a-" + "ionic"), just not correct.
[nq:1]"unionized" in a chemical context. "Periodic" is another nice word,[/nq]
Beware the period Ides of March.
¬R

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What's the difference between "distilled" and "purified"?[/nq]
[nq:1]On the labels of water bottles, "distilled" indicates the highest degree of purity,[/nq]
BTW, why is the distilled water sold in the grocery store labeled "steam distilled". Is there any other kind?
By that term do they mean that the water was turned into steam and then allowed to condense somewhere else, which is what I would call distilled?
Or is this some clever trick, like they passed some steam over the water and claim that distilled it.
Because steam distilled sounds to me like the steam did the distilling, when for real distilled water it's the heat and the apparatus that does the distilling, and steam is just a transition state for the water. Or something like that.
So this use of "steam distilled" has for quite some time made me think they are pulling a fast one.
[nq:1]"deionized" the next highest (some anionic chemicals may remain), and "purified" everything below that (both ionic and anionic chemicals may ... and extracting a small amount of one substance from it, leaving most of the original mixture behind as waste. ¬R[/nq]
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Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Because steam distilled sounds to me like the steam did the distilling,[/nq]
There actually is just such a process, but it would be impossible to use it to distill water, since it only works on substances that are immiscible with water.
¬R

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]In the days when I did the sort of chemistry ... be purer than distilled water, but maybe we were wrong,[/nq]
[nq:1]or maybe your lab's source of distilled water just wasn't very clean? (I never even had the choice in our FA ... and a bottle of distilled water and run each through your humidifier or iron, and you'll see the difference. ...[/nq]
Back when I lived in Birmingham (see thread of that name in AUE) I used to fill up my car battery, but I'd be crazy to do that now.

athel

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]or maybe your lab's source of distilled water just wasn't ... your humidifier or iron, and you'll see the difference. ...[/nq]
[nq:1]Back when I lived in Birmingham (see thread of that name in AUE) I used to fill up my car battery, but I'd be crazy to do that now.[/nq]
Sorry, that didn't make sense. What I thought I'd written was "I used to fill up my car battery with tap water, but I'd be crazy to do that now"

athel

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