Fractional distillation is the separation of a mixture into its component parts, or fractions, such as in separating chemical compounds by their boiling point by heating them to a temperature at which several fractions of the compound will vaporize. It is a special type of distillation. Generally the component parts boil at less than 25 °C from each other under a pressure of one atmosphere (atm). If the difference in boiling points is greater than 25 °C, a simple distillation is used.

Fractional distillation in a laboratory makes use of common laboratory glassware and apparatuses, typically including a Bunsen burner, a round-bottomed flask and a condenser, as well as the single-purpose fractionating column.

As an example, consider the distillation of a mixture of water and ethanol. Ethanol boils at 78.4 °C while water boils at 100 °C. So, by heating the mixture, the most volatile component will concentrate to a greater degree in the vapor leaving the liquid. Some mixtures form azeotropes, where the mixture boils at a lower temperature than either component. In this example, a mixture of 96% ethanol and 4% water boils at 78.2 °C, being more volatile than pure ethanol. For this reason, ethanol cannot be completely purified by direct fractional distillation of ethanol-water mixtures.