What type of solutions are very unstable

When you can add more solute which continues to dissolve, your solution is said to be unsaturated. When you cannot dissolve any more solute at a given temperature, then your solution is now saturated.

For most chemicals, increasing the temperature of the solution will facilitate more solute to dissolve. When a solution that has had more solute dissolved at a higher temperature is now cooled, it becomes supersaturated at the lower temperature. Analytical Chemistry Video Lessons. Cell Biology Video Lessons. Genetics Video Lessons. Biochemistry Video Lessons.

GOB Video Lessons. Microbiology Video Lessons. Calculus Video Lessons. Statistics Video Lessons. When the particles get big enough to be removed with ordinary filter paper coffee filters then the mixture is a suspension.

Suspensions tend to settle on standing. The solubility of a substance is the maximum amount of solute that dissolves in a given amount of solvent at a given temperature. A solution that is below the maximum is described as unsaturated and a solution at the maximum is described as saturated. A unstable condition can exist where there is more than the maximum amount of solute in the solvent, this is called supersaturated.

These definitions of saturated and unsaturated are unrelated to saturated and unsaturated fats. Increasing the temperature tends to increase the solubility of a solid in water and tends to decrease the solubility of a gas in water. In contrast, a hydrophobic substance may be polar but usually contains C—H bonds that do not interact favorably with water, as is the case with naphthalene and n-octane.

Hydrophilic substances tend to be very soluble in water and other strongly polar solvents, whereas hydrophobic substances are essentially insoluble in water and soluble in nonpolar solvents such as benzene and cyclohexane. The difference between hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances has substantial consequences in biological systems. For example, vitamins can be classified as either fat soluble or water soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A, are mostly nonpolar, hydrophobic molecules.

As a result, they tend to be absorbed into fatty tissues and stored there. In contrast, water-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin C, are polar, hydrophilic molecules that circulate in the blood and intracellular fluids, which are primarily aqueous.

Water-soluble vitamins are therefore excreted much more rapidly from the body and must be replenished in our daily diet. A comparison of the chemical structures of vitamin A and vitamin C quickly reveals why one is hydrophobic and the other hydrophilic. Because water-soluble vitamins are rapidly excreted, the risk of consuming them in excess is relatively small.

Eating a dozen oranges a day is likely to make you tired of oranges long before you suffer any ill effects due to their high vitamin C content. In contrast, fat-soluble vitamins constitute a significant health hazard when consumed in large amounts.

For example, the livers of polar bears and other large animals that live in cold climates contain large amounts of vitamin A, which have occasionally proven fatal to humans who have eaten them.

Using what you know of hydrophilic and hydrophobic solutes, classify each as water soluble or fat soluble and predict which are likely to be required in the diet on a daily basis. Asked for: classification as water soluble or fat soluble; dietary requirement. Based on the structure of each compound, decide whether it is hydrophilic or hydrophobic. If it is hydrophilic, it is likely to be required on a daily basis.

These compounds are consumed by humans: caffeine, acetaminophen, and vitamin D. Identify each as primarily hydrophilic water soluble or hydrophobic fat soluble , and predict whether each is likely to be excreted from the body rapidly or slowly. Caffeine and acetaminophen are water soluble and rapidly excreted, whereas vitamin D is fat soluble and slowly excreted.

Solutions are not limited to gases and liquids; solid solutions also exist. For example, amalgams, which are usually solids, are solutions of metals in liquid mercury. Because most metals are soluble in mercury, amalgams are used in gold mining, dentistry, and many other applications. A major difficulty when mining gold is separating very small particles of pure gold from tons of crushed rock.

One way to accomplish this is to agitate a suspension of the crushed rock with liquid mercury, which dissolves the gold as well as any metallic silver that might be present.

The very dense liquid gold—mercury amalgam is then isolated and the mercury distilled away. An alloy is a solid or liquid solution that consists of one or more elements in a metallic matrix. A solid alloy has a single homogeneous phase in which the crystal structure of the solvent remains unchanged by the presence of the solute.

Thus the microstructure of the alloy is uniform throughout the sample. Examples are substitutional and interstitial alloys such as brass or solder.

In contrast, a partial alloy solution has two or more phases that can be homogeneous in the distribution of the components, but the microstructures of the two phases are not the same.