Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Distillation, Rayleigh

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

  • 212 Accesses

Definition

This term applies to chemical and isotopic fractionation during phase transformation when one phase progressively evolves from another of limited size and is continuously removed. Upon evaporation of an alcoholic solution, ethanol concentrates into the first vapor extracts and, as a result of the finite original supply, becomes depleted in the residual liquid. Distillation, which bears the name of “Rayleigh distillation” from Lord Rayleigh who provided the original equation, greatly enhances fractionation over exchange at equilibrium. Distillation as described for spirit amounts to fractional evaporation: changing phases leads to fractional condensation (rain), fractional crystallization (magmatic differentiation), fractional melting, etc.

See Also

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46, Allee d’Italie, 69364, Cedex 7, Lyon, France

    Francis Albarede

Authors
  1. Francis Albarede
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francis Albarede .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Albarede, F. (2014). Distillation, Rayleigh. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1733-3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1733-3

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation