Here is an example:
and here
I’m aware of hydrophobic liquids like oil that won’t mix with water…and I’m vaguely aware of hydrophobic and oleophobic materials…but what are these liquids? There obviously is a clear liquid that doesn’t dissolve appreciably in oil or water and is able to be colored…what is or are some examples of such liquids?
Or more specifically…whats in these devices?
One of these?
The linked devices just have an internal transparent divider.
But if you wanted three immiscible liquids, oil, water and mercury would do it.
I recall seeing a cocktail made from several brightly colored liqueurs in a tall narrow glass. They weren’t technically immiscible, but they did have different specific gravities.
Sufficiently different that with careful technique each successive lighter layer could be poured atop the developing stack of layers with no mixing.
It was very festive. It took very little agitation to turn the whole thing into a brown mess.
That is to say, there are two separate sealed tanks sandwiched together - both containing clear light oil and each containing dyed water of a different colour.
It’s easier to see in the second link where drops of one colour are passing in front of the other. They’re not touching because they are separated by a transparent wall of plastic.
Well, sonofabitch :smack:
Occam’s razor and all.
I just did this with my daughter for a school experiment. As I recall, we used vegetable oil, alcohol and water. We used salt, which was absorbed at different rates by the alcohol and the water, to change the densities of the water and alcohol. We were able to create a nice 3 level mixture that you could shake and that would reseparate. I’ve heard tell that something similar is possible with sugar…
Fluorocarbons are immiscible with water, but also with many organic solvents. So that’s a common way of setting up a three phase system. The ‘fluorous phase’ allows you to do some creative things with how you process / purify chemical processes.
Not what I meant but the same idea. Black and Tans are showy but I’d rather enjoy a whole Guinness without the pollutant. YMMV.
I came here to mention fluorocarbons and mercury, both already mentioned. Some organics can absorb enough water such that they become immiscible with other, less hygroscopic organics, but remain immiscible with water. Aniline/water/hexane is an example. So you might be able to make five if you add a fluorocarbon and Hg, but I haven’t seen any examples and I’m no longer equipped to check it myself.
Totally missed your link. This is pretty cool:
Anything involving molten phosphorous is pretty cool.
I remember Mr. Wizard doing this. I think he set up four or five layers; I know mercury, water, and mineral oil were in there but I don’t remember what else.
If you can deal with something just a bit warm there is an alloy called Woods Metal IIRC. Melts at about the temp of hot tea. Used to make “melting spoons” as a gag.
10% cadmium? no thanks.
Like sands through an hour glass, these are the oil drop timers of our lives.
How about oil, bromine, and sulfuric acid? I think they are inmiscible.