Final answer:
The "volatility" of a congener refers to its tendency to vaporize; this physical property is exploited in distillation to separate components in a mixture based on their different boiling points and vapor pressures.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term "volatility" of a congener refers to the congener's tendency to vaporize or to become a gas. In the context of distillation, a volatile congener would be one that has a relatively low boiling point and weak intermolecular interactions, causing it to rise and condense in the rectifier column during the distillation process. This principle is utilized to separate different components in a mixture based on their volatility, ensuring that the most volatile component, like pure water in a salt and water mixture, is collected first while the less volatile components, such as salt, remain in the distillation flask.
Distillation is a physical separation process exploiting differences in the volatility of the component substances within a mixture. For instance, when distilling a mixture of two volatile liquids with significantly different vapor pressures, the more volatile liquid will be vaporized, condensed, and collected first, effectively separating it from the less volatile liquid following Raoult's law.