Two products X and Y are formed in the following reaction sequence.
\( CH _6 CH _6 + CH_3Cl\xrightarrow{Anhydr. AlCl_3 } W\xrightarrow[ \text{warm}]{ dil.HNO_3 + dil. H_2SO_4 } X + Y\)

(A) Fractional distillation
The reaction of benzene with methyl chloride in the presence of anhydrous \(AlCl _3\) is a Friedel-Crafts alkylation, which yields toluene (W).
\(C _6 H _6+ CH _3 Cl \xrightarrow{\text { Anhydr. } AlCl _3} C _6 H _5 CH _3\)
Nitration of toluene with a mixture of \(HNO _3\) and \(H _2 SO _4\) yields a mixture of ortho-nitrotoluene and para-nitrotoluene as the major products ( X and Y ).
\(C_6 H_5 CH_3 \xrightarrow[\text { warm }]{\text { dil. } HNO_3 \text { + dil. } H_2 SO_4} \text { o-nitrotoluene + p-nitrotoluene }\)
The boiling point of o-nitrotoluene is \(222^{\circ} C\) and that of p-nitrotoluene is \(238^{\circ} C\). Since the difference in their boiling points is small, they are separated by fractional distillation.