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

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 (). 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 or , for example.