Extraction (chemistry)

Extraction is like taking the chocolate chips out of a cookie. Just like how you can take out the special parts of a cookie, in chemistry, we can take out specific chemicals from a mixture of different chemicals. To do this, we use a special liquid called a solvent.

Imagine if you have a bowl of M&Ms, you can pour some water over it and shake it up. The colored coating on the M&Ms will start to dissolve in the water creating a colorful solution. You can then pour this solution into another container and wait for the water to evaporate. When the water evaporates, it will leave behind the colored coating of the M&Ms, which is now separated from the original mixture.

Similarly, in chemistry, we can use different solvents to dissolve specific chemicals from a mixture. We pour the mixture into a container and add the solvent. After shaking it, we can separate the solution into two layers. The top layer contains the solvent and the dissolved chemical, while the bottom layer contains the rest of the mixture.

We can then carefully pour out the top layer into another container and wait for the solvent to evaporate. The chemical that was dissolved will be left behind in its pure form.

So, in essence, extraction is separating one chemical from a mixture by using another liquid that dissolves only that specific chemical.