Is ethyl alcohol a mixture or a pure substance? (8287)

, por F_y_Q

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Is ethyl alcohol an element, a compound, or a mixture?

P.-S.

Ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, falls under what we call "pure substances", so you should discard the idea that it is a mixture (except in the case mentioned at the end).

Within pure substances, you can find elements, which are made up of a single type of atom, and compounds, which are made up of more than one type of atom.

Ethyl alcohol is a compound (\color[RGB]{0,112,192}{\textbf{\ce{CH3CH2OH}}}). As you can see, it contains carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.

However, if we refer to the alcohol that can be purchased in stores or pharmacies, we would be talking about a mixture because it is not pure alcohol; it contains water. This is why the label indicates that it is 96\ \% or 70\ \%, for example.