water alcohol and salt experiment

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Basic Modeling of the Dissolving Phenomenon Mark as Favorite (50 Favorites)

ACTIVITY in Solubility , Solute & Solvent , Intermolecular Forces . Last updated March 25, 2020.

In this activity, students explore the process of salt dissolving in water using cut-outs of ions and water molecules to model interactions between them. They then use their model to make a prediction about the relative solubility of salt in isopropyl alcohol compared to the solubility in water and design an experiment to test their prediction.

Grade Level

High and Middle school

NGSS Alignment

This activity will help prepare your students to meet the performance expectations in the following standards:

• HS-PS1-3: Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to

• Design a 2-dimensional model of the interactions of water molecules and ions during the dissolving process.
• Explain, on the molecular level, why water dissolves salt.
• Use their model to predict the relative solubility of salt in isopropyl alcohol and water.
• Design an experiment to test their prediction.
• Refine their model based on observations made while conducting their experiment.

Chemistry Topics

This activity supports students’ understanding of

• intermolecular attractions

Teacher Preparation : 15 minutes

Lesson: 90 minutes

• Student activity sheet with ion and molecule cut-outs (one per group)
• Scissors (one per group)
• Isopropyl alcohol *
• Table salt *
• Plastic cups (4 per group)
• Graduated cylinder
• Electronic Balance

* Amounts will vary depending upon the lab plans designed by your students

• Always wear safety goggles when handling chemicals in the lab.
• Students should wash their hands thoroughly before leaving the lab.
• When students complete the lab, instruct them how to clean up their materials and dispose of any chemicals.

Teacher Notes

• Read more about this activity, and the related activity, Advanced Modeling of the Dissolving Phenomenon , in the associated article, Using Learning Progression to Improve Scientific Modeling in Chemistry in the May 2018 issue of Chemistry Solutions .
• Acknowledgements : This lesson is based on the “ Why Does Water Dissolve Salt? ” activity from Chapter 5, Lesson 3 on the Middle School Chemistry website. This website, brought to us by the American Chemical Society, allows students to investigate the world of atoms and molecules. All of the images used in the student documents are also from the Middle School Chemistry website.
• The student cut-outs for this activity are available as a separate file download.
• Images are Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society. Used with permission from middleschoolchemistry.com
• Engage : Engage your students by asking them to describe what happens when salt dissolves in water. Provide them with an image of salt and water and ask them to think about how the structure of each might be part of the dissolving process.
• Explore : You students will then explore the dissolving process by building a two-dimensional model of a salt lattice with cut-outs of sodium and chloride ions. Ask them to explain what is holding the solid structure together.
• Explain : Use the image below to show your student what happen during the dissolving process. Ask them to describe the interaction between the charged ions and the water molecules. Then ask them to move their cut-out ions and molecules to demonstrate the dissolving process.

• Elaborate : Using the image below, have students discuss the difference in structure between water and isopropyl alcohol molecules. Have them make a prediction based on the following question, “Thinking about the polarity of water molecules and alcohol molecules, do you think alcohol would be just as good, better or worse than water at dissolving salt?” Their prediction must include information about their original dissolving model, polarity, interparticle forces, and structure.

• Evaluate : Students design an experimental procedure to test their predictions. Each group should record their procedures and get them approved before conducting their experiment. Based on their observations, have them answer the following question, “Is alcohol just as good, better, or worse than water at dissolving salt?” They should fully explain their answer using their observations and the model of dissolving that they developed at the beginning of the lesson.

For the Student

The dissolving process looks simple on the surface, but there are many things going on at the atomic level that help determine if a substance will dissolve in water or other liquids. During this activity we will learn about salt’s lattice structure and how ion charge and the polarity of water are both important parts of the dissolving process.

Prelab Questions

Before starting the activity, think about what might happen during the dissolving process.

• Write down what you think will happen when you add some table salt (sodium chloride) to water and stir:
• Wash your hands thoroughly before leaving the lab.
• Follow teacher instructions for clean-up of materials and disposal of any chemicals.

Materials available for investigation

• Student activity sheet with ion and molecule cut-outs
• Isopropyl alcohol
• Plastic cups
• Electronic balance

Question : How does salt dissolve in water?

• Look at the image of a sodium chloride crystal.
• What is it about water molecules and ions in salt that might make water able to dissolve salt?

Question : What is holding the crystal together?

• Cut out the ions and water molecules.
• Arrange the sodium and chloride ions to represent a 2-D model of a salt crystal.
• What do you think is holding the crystal together?

Question : What interaction occurs between the charged ions and the water molecule?

• The image below shows what happens during the dissolving process.
• Move your cut-out ions and molecules to demonstrate the dissolving process.
• Draw a model of the process of dissolving table salt in water below. Include at least one sodium and one chloride ion and several water molecules.

Question : Is water or isopropyl alcohol better at dissolving salt?

• Make a prediction based on the following question, “Thinking about the polarity of water molecules and alcohol molecules, do you think alcohol would be just as good, better or worse than water at dissolving salt?” Your prediction must include information about polarity, interparticle forces, structure, and your original model of dissolving. Use the image below as reference (isopropyl on the left, water on the right).

Question : Is alcohol just as good, better, or worse than water at dissolving salt?

• Design an experimental procedure to test your prediction. Each group should record their procedures and get them approved before conducting their experiment. Procedures should include safety concerns, a list of all materials and equipment you will need (including amounts), and a detailed list of procedures.
• Based on your observations, answer the following question, “Is alcohol just as good, better, or worse than water at dissolving salt?”Fully explain your answer using your observations and the model of dissolving that you developed at the beginning of the lesson.

20 Surprising Science Experiments with Salt (Kids Will Love Them)

• October 23, 2020
• Science Experiments

Our houses have many ingredients that serves as a key component for performing a lot many simple science experiments.

I am sure, you would never imagine how useful SALT can be around your home to engage your kids with fun learning and to explore the world of science around you and your kids.

Science Experiments with Salt

All the experiments are super fun, simple, easy to do, no messy, easy to set up, and especially unique science activities. Here we go!

1. Salt Painting Science Experiment

If you are looking for a simple science and art project , then this awesome salt painting science experiment is a great way to explore about simple concepts of science such as absorption. Pre-schoolers and home schoolers find this experiment a great way to learn science concepts.

Find more details of this amazing science experiment here: Salt Painting Science Experiment

2. Desalinization Science Experiment

The word ‘Desalinisation’ is an intimidating word for young children. But believe me, with this spectacular science experiment kids easily learn marine biology hands-on.

Supplies and instructions for desalinisation are found here: Desalinisation Science Experiment

3. Floating Egg Science Experiment

What happens to an egg placed in the salt water? Did you know that an egg can be floated in the water? Simple salt water experiment to teach kids about density and fresh water in a fun and entertaining way. Awesome kitchen science experiment for children of grades 1-5.

Are you interested in learning the complete instructions of the experiment? Click on Floating Egg Science Experiment

4. Make Ice-Cream in a Bag Science Activity

Kids will love to make their own ice creams and end up with a great tasting desert while learning a lot of chemistry science . This is such an awesome kitchen science experiment that finishes in 10 minutes . How cool is it!!

Engage your kids in making ice cream with complete instructions. Find details here: Make Ice-Cream in a Bag Science Activity

5. Melting Ice Salt Science Experiment

Children will learn how salt melts ice with this super cool science activity. It seems simple and easy but encourage kids to explore a lot of science.

Do not miss to check out Melting Ice Salt Science Experiment for more information in detail.  

6. Grow Salt Crystals Science Activity

Growing salt crystals is a simple science experiment that is popular to make kids learn about chemical reactions involved to form crystals. Fun and engaging Easter Science Activity! Kids will have a ton of fun while learning how to grow salt crystals at the same time.

Get more details of the experiment here: Grow Salt Crystals Science Activity

7 . Ice and Salt Science Experiment

Here is an awesome science activity fills the days of the children in grades 1-7 with some simple science concepts. It’s a fun STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, Math) activity for kids.

Check out here, Ice and Salt Science Experiment

8. Sticky Ice Science Experiment

This kid’s friendly science experiment with ice is simply too cool, quick, easy, and little magical. Kids will get to learn about freezing point of water and its effects on salt in a fun way. Challenge your children to lift the ice cube just using a thread!  

Click here Sticky Ice Science Experiment to learn full description of this super classic science experiment.

9. Egg Geodes Science Experiment

Fun and successful science fair project with egg geodes make the children sharp in developing their critical thinking and questioning skills leaving a wow factor on their faces.

Want to give it a try!? Click on Egg Geodes Science Experiment .

10. Homemade Slushy Drink with Ice and Salt Experiment

Let your kids learn about freezing and melting points while having fun in making homemade slushy drink on their own. This simple science activity offers a great alternate method of making ice cream and cooling drinks very quickly. Sounds entertaining!!

Get the complete description about this classic science experiment here: Homemade Slushy Drink with Ice and Salt Experiment

11. Salt Vibrations STEAM Activity

Here on it is not intimidating to understand the concept of sounds. Easy and fun science STEAM activity that teaches kids about sounds caused by vibrations. In fact, kids are allowed to enjoy this demonstration that actually shows kids the sound waves in action. Click on Salt Vibrations STEAM Activity

12. Salt Water Experiment Ocean Science

A terrific salt science experiment for pre-schoolers! An awesome kitchen science experiment to teach kids about density of salt water versus fresh water. This experiment offers great time to learn about the difference between fresh river water and salty ocean water. What a cool activity!

Click on Salt Water Experiment Ocean Science to find more details

13. Growing Gummy Bears Science Experiment

Have you ever wondered of watching growing gummy bears? Do you think it is hard to witness? Absolutely not! Do this simple science experiment to show how this common kitchen hold mineral effects gummy bears?

Check out here to find simple step-by-step information and instructions: Growing Gummy Bears Science Experiment

1 4 . Rainbow Salt Circuit Science Experiment

Creating an electric circuit using common kitchen hold mineral i.e. salt is an amazing experience for the kids. A great hands-on examination on circuits making kids scientific knowledge on power and circuits little more interesting and exciting.

Are you interested in creating your own salt circuit with water? Then click on Rainbow Salt Circuit Science Experiment

15. Cleaning Pennies Science Experiment

All the kids love to play with pennies and while playing they even observed at times some pennies look dull and some other look bright. Just remind your children about this and ask them to guess what the reason behind that is. Let them explain their versions and then explain them about this cool science experiment. They love to do this hands-on activity to watch the magical results of cleaning pennies. Just browse Cleaning Pennies Science Experiment

16. Salt Pendulum Science Experiment

Salt pendulum is a fun art and science fair project for kids of all ages. Let your kids explore the science behind changing times and pendulums hands-on. While investigating the experiment ask your child to predict the time according to the movements of pendulums and predict what impacts time change. Also help them to understand the concept by explaining how salt effects this experiment in a fun way.

Find more details of the experiment here: Salt Pendulum Science Experiment

17. Popcorn and Salt Science Experiment

Let your kiddos think about their own scientific thought process with this easy and simple science activity to do with salt and popcorns. Using just three ingredients you can bring a lot of change in your child’s scientific knowledge. Easy to set up experiment with great results, highlights the difference between mass and volume using kid’s most favourite snack.

Are you ready to experiment with popcorns and salt : Popcorn and Salt Science Experiment

18. Lava Lamp Cool Science Experiment

An excellent way to explore density of liquids using simple ingredients you have right in your kitchen. Fun way to explore density of liquids and great opportunity to practice mixing colors. Besides, this is an easy going science and sensory play experiment as it makes children much more excited and attentive to study the simple science concepts using salt.

Click on Lava Lamp Cool Science Experiment for more information.

19. Static Electricity Balloon and Salt and Pepper Experiment

Children might have observed a balloon sticking to something like hair strands, comb, salt, etc.  Throw a question to your children on the magical science involved in this process of sticking to things. Static Electricity Balloon and Salt and Pepper experiment is all about explaining static electricity in a fun way. Isn’t it excited? Best and simple science experiment for your elementary children : Static Electricity Balloon and Salt and Pepper Experiment

20. Solid-Solid Separation science Experiment

An amazing easy fun science activity that teaches kids to understand about three science concepts i.e. evaporation, sedimentation, and filtration. How amazing is it to explain the three main science concepts while performing a single science investigation.

Click on Solid-Solid Separation science Experiment

So, here are the simple and easy science experiments to do with common kitchen hold mineral, salt. There is a lot of science involved in these super cool experiments that will surely amaze you and your kids. Simple science experiments that everyone will love! Fun and fascinating experiments for toddlers , pre-schoolers, and even some are perfect for older kids. Have a look and enjoy experimenting with salt. Happy Experimenting!!

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• Experiments
• Secret Science of Stuff
• Science ABCs
• Dissolving M&Ms
• You are here:
• American Chemical Society
• Adventures in Chemistry

M&Ms are great but have you ever noticed that if your fingers are a little wet, the candy coating begins to dissolve and you see color on your fingers? If the coating dissolves in water, do you think it will dissolve in other liquids?

Let’s find out.

1. Label your three cups water , alcohol , and oil .

2. Add 1 tablespoon of water, isopropyl alcohol, and oil to its labeled cup.

3. Take three M&Ms of the same color and put one in each cup.

4. Swirl each cup for about 20 seconds to see if one liquid is better than another at dissolving the candy coating.

What to expect

The coating on the M&M in the water will dissolve the most. You may even see the chocolate on the inside. There will be a little dissolving in the alcohol but not nearly as much as in the water. In the oil, you probably will not be able to see any dissolving.

What's happening in there?

Why does the color come off differently in each liquid? The candy coating is made up of coloring and sugar. The coloring and the sugar molecules both have positive and negative charges on them.

The water molecule has positive and negative charges so it can attract and dissolve the color and sugar pretty well.

The alcohol molecules don’t have as many positive and negative areas as the water. The alcohol molecules can’t attract the coloring and sugar molecules as well as the water so the candy coating doesn’t dissolve well in alcohol.

The oil molecules have no positive and negative areas. They don’t attract the coloring or sugar molecules so the candy coating doesn’t dissolve at all in oil.

What else could you try?

You’ve seen that water is the best liquid for dissolving the candy coating from an M&M. But have you ever tried putting two or more M&Ms in water at the same time? You can get some pretty cool-looking patterns.

The coating comes off the M&M in a round shape surrounding the M&M. The dissolved coatings from different M&Ms drift toward each other and touch. The colors seem to form a line and don’t seem to mix right away.

1. Pour water in the plate until it covers the bottom and is about as deep as an M&M.

2. Place two or more M&Ms near each other in the center of the plate.

3. Do not stir the water or bump the plate.

4. Watch for about 1-2 minutes.

5. Try different arrangements of M&Ms.

What’s happening in there?

Why don't the colors mix?

It may seem weird that the colors don’t mix right away. But if you think about it, we usually stir or shake things if we want them to mix. We usually don’t just let two liquids touch and expect them to mix right away. As the molecules from the dissolved coatings interact with each other, they will mix but it takes some time.

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Shop Experiment Fractional Distillation Experiments​

Fractional distillation.

Experiment #8 from Chemistry with Vernier

Introduction

An example of a simple distillation is the separation of a solution of salt and water into two separate pure substances. When the salt water solution is heated to boiling, water vapor from the mixture reaches the condenser and the cold water circulating around the inside tube causes condensation of water vapor into droplets of liquid water. The liquid water is then collected at the lower end of the condenser. The non-volatile salt remains in the flask.

In this experiment, the initial mixture you distill contains two volatile liquids: ethanol and water. In this distillation, both of the liquids will evaporate from the boiling solution. Ethanol and water have normal boiling temperatures of 79°C and 100°C, respectively. One objective of the experiment is to observe what happens when a liquid-liquid mixture is heated and allowed to boil over a period of time. Throughout the distillation, volumes of distillate, called fractions , will be collected. The percent composition of ethanol and water in each fraction will be determined from its density. Water has a density of 1.00 g/cm 3 (at 20°C) and ethanol has a density of 0.79 g/cm 3 (at 20°C). The fractions you collect will have densities in this range.

In this experiment, you will

• Observe what happens when a liquid-liquid mixture is heated and allowed to boil over a period of time.
• Determine percent composition of ethanol and water in the fraction from its density.

Sensors and Equipment

This experiment features the following sensors and equipment. Additional equipment may be required.

Correlations

Teaching to an educational standard? This experiment supports the standards below.

Ready to Experiment?

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This experiment is #8 of Chemistry with Vernier . The experiment in the book includes student instructions as well as instructor information for set up, helpful hints, and sample graphs and data.

Exploring Our Fluid Earth

Teaching science as inquiry.

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Comparison of Water with Other Liquids

Fig. 3-17. Water, alcohol and oil have different adhesive and cohesive properties 

Photo by Kanesa Seraphin

We see water, alcohol and oil have different adhesive and cohesive properties and also look at the relative ability of selected liquids to dissolve solids and other liquids.

Observe the different cohesive and adhesive properties of water, oil, and alcohol.

Table 3-3 lists four liquid solvents with information on their polarity and the kind of bonding between their atoms. In the activity that follows, we will investigate the capacity of water to dissolve materials compared to other solvents.

Compare how well polar, slightly polar, and nonpolar liquids dissolve substances.

Fig. 3-19:  Water dissolving a salt crystal.

Clusters of water molecules are attracted to and surround sodium ions (Na + ) and chloride ions (Cl - ) on the surface of the salt crystal. Positive polar ends of water molecules are attracted to the chloride ions (Cl - ), and their negative polar ends are attracted to the positive sodium ions (Na + ). See Fig. 3-19. The bonding between the ions and water is strong, and shortly the ions are as strongly attracted to the water as to each other. As other water molecules collide with the ion-containing clusters, they knock them off, casting them into the solution. An ion surrounded by water is called a hydrated ion . A similar process occurs in the dissolving of polar covalent compounds except that the water is attracted to the poles of the dissolving polar compound. For example, sugar is a large polar molecule with negatively charged OH groups that help sugar easily dissolve in water.

Photo courtesy of Julie Falk

Photo by Kanesa Seraphin

Dilution of Pollution and Vital Gases

Fig 3-21:  Water, oil, and detergent molecules.

Detergents are an interesting class of compounds that permit large quantities of nonpolar compounds to dissolve in water. The molecules of detergents are long, with one polar end and one nonpolar end (see Fig. 3-21). Detergent molecules are so long, in fact, that their charged ends do not affect their nonpolar ends.  

Comparison of Liquids and Compounds

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show/hide words to know

Amino acid: molecules that contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. These are the building blocks of protein...... more

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): molecular instructions that guide how all living things develop and function... more

Molecule: a chemical structure that has two or more atoms held together by a chemical bond. Water is a molecule of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O)...  more

Protein: a type of molecule found in the cells of living things, made up of special building blocks called amino acids.

How to Break Proteins

Proteins are essential for all living things to function. They are large molecules made up of long chains of amino acids. Depending on the types of amino acids they have, proteins fold in very specific ways. The way they fold controls what the proteins are able to do. Proteins help move other molecules, respond to signals, make reactions happen more quickly, and replicate DNA, among other things. However, if proteins lose their specific folded shape, they are not able to work properly.

Proteins are long molecules that are twisted into a 3-Dimensional shape. That shape, based on the way they fold, is important to their function. If they lose that shape, they stop working properly. Click to enlarge.

Proteins require specific conditions to keep their shape. For example, most proteins in our bodies rely on us to keep a warm (but not hot) body temperature, stay hydrated, and take in enough of specific nutrients like salt. If our bodies aren’t able to maintain these conditions, some of our proteins may not function as well, or at all. Most organisms actually produce special proteins called “molecular chaperones” that help other proteins and molecules continue to work even if conditions are becoming difficult to tolerate.

When a protein is exposed to conditions too far outside of a range it can tolerate, that protein’s shape will come undone. This is called “denaturing” (basically, breaking) a protein. We denature proteins all the time when we cook food (think: eggs). In this activity, we will use common household products or processes to denature egg proteins in two main ways—by cooking them, and by exposing them to concentrated alcohol (ethanol). Do you think egg will look the same or different depending on how the proteins it holds are denatured?

Materials       

• Stove or microwave
• Pot or microwave-safe container to boil water
• 1 pair scissors
• 4 small glass containers of the same size
• 1 egg (split egg white into four parts); additional can be used
• 2/3 cup water (150 ml)
• 1/3 cup of rubbing alcohol (75 ml)

Watch biologist Melissa Wilson Sayres as she shows you step-by-step how to break the proteins in egg whites.

Breaking Proteins in 8 Easy Steps

• Pour 1/3 cup rubbing alcohol into one glass container, room temperature water (1/3 cup) into another, and the rest of the water (1/3 cup) into a microwave-safe container (or into a pot).
• Crack egg into the bowl, removing the yolks.
• Cut the egg white into pieces so you can add ¼ into each glass container.
• Heat up the water for your hot water treatment and pour into one of the empty glass containers.
• Quickly put ¼ of the egg yolk into the boiling water. Then put ¼ into the alcohol, ¼ into the room temperature water, and the remainder into the final, empty glass container.
• Observe any immediate changes that occur in terms of egg white color and consistency. If you try stirring the different treatments, rinse your fork between stirs.
• Wait for 30 minutes.
• Use the fork to inspect the state of the egg whites in each treatment and note how they may have changed over time.

( Teacher & Student packet is available ).

What Happened?

Why does denatured egg white turn from clear to white? If more than one treatment denatured egg whites, do you think the treatments denatured the egg whites in the same way?

Let’s look at each of the treatments we used:

• Control . Egg whites start out clear. They are almost 90% water, but the other 10% is packed with proteins. Egg whites contain more than 50% of the proteins found in the egg. The main protein in egg white is called albumin. The small, folded proteins in the egg white don’t take up much space, and the gel-like egg white looks clear. The control egg showed us that, when left at room temperature, the egg whites stay clear, meaning the proteins maintain their original shape. These proteins were not denatured.
• Cooking (hot water) .Whenever eggs are cooked with heat, the egg whites turn from clear to white, and the gel becomes more rubbery. As heat denatured the proteins in the egg white, it broke apart some of the bonds (mostly hydrogen bonds) that were holding the proteins in their original shape. The proteins unfolded, taking up more space (turning the gel white) and hardening them in place next to one another.
• Alcohol . Alcohol also denatures proteins. It does this the same way as heat, by breaking the bonds that hold parts of the protein in a folded shape. Sometimes the alcohol molecules bond directly to some of the parts of the protein, disrupting the normal way the protein would bond to itself. (So alcohol is called a “bond disruptor.”) The proteins again unfolded, taking up more space and hardening in place next to one another. This process took much longer with alcohol than it did with heat, however. The longer time for denaturation with alcohol is simply because it spreads more slowly than heat. The alcohol had to diffuse (or move through the fluid) into the egg in order to affect the proteins it touched.
• Room temperature water . Sometimes in this experiment, room temperature water has a small denaturing effect on some of the egg white. It acts in the same way, by breaking bonds, but its effect isn’t nearly as strong as alcohol or hot water.

Questions to think about after denaturing egg proteins

Think about the effects of the two different water treatments. Do you think the water itself was denaturing proteins? If not, what was? If so, what was having the larger effect between the water treatments?

Are there any other processes you know of that turn egg whites from clear to white? What is it and do you think the same processes are happening?

Name another condition besides heat and exposure to a bond disruptor (like alcohol) that could affect the ability of a protein to maintain its shape.

What other things change color when their proteins are denatured?

Why might a living organism want to keep their proteins from denaturing?

In this activity, why was it important to have egg whites that we did not cook or add alcohol to?

Additional images via Wikimedia Commons. Soft-boiled egg by H. Alexander Talbot.

Read more about: Breaking Proteins

View citation, bibliographic details:.

• Article: Breaking Proteins
• Author(s): Karla Moeller
• Publisher: Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Ask A Biologist
• Site name: ASU - Ask A Biologist
• Date published: May 29, 2018
• Date accessed: September 26, 2024
• Link: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/activities/breaking-proteins

Karla Moeller. (2018, May 29). Breaking Proteins. ASU - Ask A Biologist. Retrieved September 26, 2024 from https://askabiologist.asu.edu/activities/breaking-proteins

Chicago Manual of Style

Karla Moeller. "Breaking Proteins". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 29 May, 2018. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/activities/breaking-proteins

MLA 2017 Style

Karla Moeller. "Breaking Proteins". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 29 May 2018. ASU - Ask A Biologist, Web. 26 Sep 2024. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/activities/breaking-proteins

When an egg is cooked, the clear liquid surrounding the orange yolk becomes more solid and white. What causes this to happen?

Breaking Proteins

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January 31, 2013

Squishy Science: Extract DNA from Smashed Strawberries

A genetically geared activity from Science Buddies

By Science Buddies

Key concepts DNA Genome Genes Extraction Laboratory techniques

Introduction Have you ever wondered how scientists extract DNA from an organism? All living organisms have DNA, which is short for deoxyribonucleic acid; it is basically the blueprint for everything that happens inside an organism’s cells. Overall, DNA tells an organism how to develop and function, and is so important that this complex compound is found in virtually every one of its cells. In this activity you’ll make your own DNA extraction kit from household chemicals and use it to separate DNA from strawberries.     Background Whether you’re a human, rat, tomato or bacterium, each of your cells will have DNA inside of it (with some rare exceptions, such as mature red blood cells in humans). Each cell has an entire copy of the same set of instructions, and this set is called the genome. Scientists study DNA for many reasons: They can figure out how the instructions stored in DNA help your body to function properly. They can use DNA to make new medicines or genetically modify crops to be resistant to insects. They can solve who is a suspect of a crime, and can even use ancient DNA to reconstruct evolutionary histories!

To get the DNA from a cell, scientists typically rely on one of many DNA extraction kits available from biotechnology companies. During a DNA extraction, a detergent will cause the cell to pop open, or lyse, so that the DNA is released into solution. Then alcohol added to the solution causes the DNA to precipitate out. In this activity, strawberries will be used because each strawberry cell has eight copies of the genome, giving them a lot of DNA per cell. (Most organisms only have one genome copy per cell.)

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Rubbing alcohol

Measuring cup

Measuring spoons

Dishwashing liquid (for hand-washing dishes)

Glass or small bowl

Cheesecloth

Tall drinking glass

Three strawberries

Resealable plastic sandwich bag

Small glass jar (such as a spice or baby food jar)

Bamboo skewer, available at most grocery stores. (If you use a baby food or short spice jar, you could substitute a toothpick for the skewer.)

Preparation

Chill the rubbing alcohol in the freezer. (You’ll need it later.)

Mix one half teaspoon of salt, one third cup of water and one tablespoon of dishwashing liquid in a glass or small bowl. Set the mixture aside. This is your extraction liquid. Why do you think there is detergent in the extraction liquid?

Completely line the funnel with cheesecloth. Insert the funnel tube into the tall drinking glass (not the glass with the extraction liquid in it).

Remove and discard the green tops from the strawberries.

Put the strawberries into a resealable plastic sandwich bag and push out all of the extra air. Seal the bag tightly.

With your fingers, squeeze and smash the strawberries for two minutes. How do the smashed strawberries look?

Add three tablespoons of the extraction liquid you prepared to the strawberries in the bag. Push out all of the extra air and reseal the bag. How do you think the detergent and salt will affect the strawberry cells?

Squeeze the strawberry mixture with your fingers for one minute. How do the smashed strawberries look now?

Pour the strawberry mixture from the bag into the funnel. Let it drip through the cheesecloth and into the tall glass until there is very little liquid left in the funnel (only wet pulp remains). How does the filtered strawberry liquid look?

Pour the filtered strawberry liquid from the tall glass into the small glass jar so that the jar is one quarter full.

Measure out one half cup of cold rubbing alcohol.

Tilt the jar and very slowly pour the alcohol down its side. Pour until the alcohol has formed approximately a one-inch-deep layer on top of the strawberry liquid. You may not need all of the one half cup of alcohol to form the one-inch layer. Do not let the strawberry liquid and alcohol mix.

Study the mixture inside of the jar. The strawberry DNA will appear as gooey clear/white stringy stuff. Do you see anything in the jar that might be strawberry DNA? If so, where in the jar is it?

Dip the bamboo skewer into the jar where the strawberry liquid and alcohol layers meet and then pull up the skewer. Did you see anything stick to the skewer that might be DNA? Can you spool any DNA onto the skewer?    

Extra: You can try using this DNA extraction activity on lots of other things. Grab some oatmeal or kiwis from the kitchen and try it again! Which foods give you the most DNA?

Extra: If you have access to a milligram scale (called a balance), you can measure how much DNA you get (called a yield). Just weigh your clean bamboo skewer and then weigh the skewer again after you have used it to fish out as much DNA as you could from your strawberry DNA extraction. Subtract the initial weight of the skewer from its weight with the DNA to get your final yield of DNA. What was the weight of your DNA yield?

Extra: Try to tweak different variables in this activity to see how you could change your strawberry DNA yield. For example, you could try starting with different amounts of strawberries, using different detergents or different DNA sources (such as oatmeal or kiwis). Which conditions give you the best DNA yield?

Observations and results Were you able to see DNA in the small jar when you added the cold rubbing alcohol? Was the DNA mostly in the layer with the  alcohol and between the layers of alcohol and strawberry liquid?

When you added the salt and detergent mixture to the smashed strawberries, the detergent helped lyse (pop open) the strawberry cells, releasing the DNA into solution, whereas the salt helped create an environment where the different DNA strands could gather and clump, making it easier for you to see them. (When you added the salt and detergent mixture, you probably mostly just saw more bubbles form in the bag because of the detergent.) After you added the cold rubbing alcohol to the filtered strawberry liquid, the alcohol should have precipitated the DNA out of the liquid while the rest of the liquid remained in solution. You should have seen the white/clear gooey DNA strands in the alcohol layer as well as between the two layers. A single strand of DNA is extremely tiny, too tiny to see with the naked eye, but because the DNA clumped in this activity you were able to see just how much of it three strawberries have when all of their octoploid cells are combined! (“Octoploid” means they have eight genomes.)

More to explore Do-It-Yourself Strawberry DNA, from the Tech Museum of Innovation, Stanford School of Medicine About Genetics , from the Tech Museum of Innovation, Stanford School of Medicine DNA Extraction Virtual Lab, from Learn Genetics, the University of Utah Do-It-Yourself DNA , from Science Buddies

This activity brought to you in partnership with  Science Buddies

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Separating sand and salt by filtering and evaporation

In association with Nuffield Foundation

• Four out of five

Task students to separate an insoluble material from a soluble one in this experiment using sand and salt

This is a very straightforward experiment. It can be carried out individually or in groups of two. Pupils must stand up during heating activities and beware of hot salt spitting when evaporation is almost complete.

• Eye protection
• Beaker, 250 cm 3
• Glass stirring rod
• Filter funnel
• Filter paper
• Conical flask, 250 cm 3
• Evaporating basin
• Bunsen burner
• Heat resistant mat
• Mixture of sand and sodium chloride (salt), about 6–7 g per group of students (a suitable sand–salt mixture should contain approximately 20% salt by mass)

Health, safety and technical notes

• Wear eye protection throughout this experiment.
• Pupils must stand up during heating activities and beware of hot salt spitting when evaporation is almost complete.
• Sodium chloride (eg table salt), NaCl(s) - see CLEAPSS Hazcard HC047b .
• Pour the sand–salt mixture into the beaker so that it just covers the base.
• Add about 50 cm 3  of water, or add water until the beaker is about one-fifth full.
• Stir the mixture gently for a few minutes.
• Filter the mixture into a conical flask.
• Pour the filtrate into an evaporating basin.
• Heat the salt solution gently until it starts to decrepitate (spit). CARE: Keep eye protection on and do not get too close.
• Turn off the Bunsen burner and let the damp salt dry in the dish.

Source: Royal Society of Chemistry

Equipment for a class experiment to separate a mixture of sand and salt.

Teaching notes

If desired, the experiment can be extended to isolate dry samples of sand and salt. To do this, the damp sand in the filter paper can be transferred to another sheet of dry filter paper, and, by folding and dabbing, the sample can be dried. If necessary, another piece of filter paper can be used.

Students often like to present their specimens in small bottles for approval, so a spatula could be used to accomplish this. While the first student of a pair is transferring the sand, the other can be scraping the dried salt from the evaporating dish and transferring it to another specimen bottle.

If this extension is carried out, the students should be encouraged to label the bottles. They should be told that all samples prepared in this way need to be labelled, even if in this case, it should be obvious which substance is which.

Student questions

• Why can sand and salt be separated using this experiment?
• Why is the salt, sand and water mixture stirred in step 3?
• Why is the salt solution heated in step 6?
• How might the final traces of water be removed from your samples to ensure that they are totally dry?
• Give two reasons why the sand you have obtained might still be contaminated with salt.
• How could you adapt your experiment to obtain a purer sample of sand?
• Give two reasons why the salt you have obtained might still be contaminated with sand.
• How could you adapt your experiment to obtain a purer sample of salt?

Primary science teaching notes

If you teach primary science, the following information is designed to help you use this resource.

Skill development

Children will develop their working scientifically skills by:

• Drawing conclusions and raising further questions that could be investigated, based on their data and observations.
• Using appropriate scientific language and ideas to explain, evaluate and communicate their methods and findings.

Learning outcomes

Children will:

• Observe that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution.
• Describe how to recover a substance from a solution.
• Use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating.
• Demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes.

Concepts supported

Children will learn:

• That there are various techniques that can be used to separate different mixtures.
• That dissolving is a reversible reaction.
• That not all solids are soluble.
• That the rate of dissolving can be affected by various factors.
• That melting and dissolving are not the same process.

Suggested activity use

This activity can be used as a whole-class investigation, with children working in small groups or pairs to look at how to separate the salt and sand. This could provide a stimulus for further investigations looking at how to separate other mixtures of solids, either of different particle sizes or by solubility. 

Practical considerations

Primary schools often don’t have Bunsen burners, so viable alternatives need to be sourced. Similarly, it may be difficult to source the equipment needed to evaporate water to recover the dissolved salt. Head stands and tea lights can work well as possible alternatives.

When carrying out this activity be aware that some insoluble solids are able to form suspensions. This is where the particles appear to have dissolved, when in fact they have been spread out throughout the liquid. A good indicator that a suspension has formed is that the liquid will go cloudy or the particles can be heard scraping as the mixture is stirred.

The layout of this activity is very prescriptive as the procedure is set out on a step by step basis. An open challenge activity, with children working in small groups and devising their own methods, would extend the children’s thinking. Different groups’ suggestions could be compared and evaluated as a class.

Additional information

This is a resource from the  Practical Chemistry project , developed by the Nuffield Foundation and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Practical Chemistry activities accompany  Practical Physics  and  Practical Biology .

© Nuffield Foundation and the Royal Society of Chemistry

• 11-14 years
• 14-16 years
• Practical experiments
• Compounds and mixtures

Specification

• AT.4 Safe use of a range of equipment to purify and/or separate chemical mixtures including evaporation, filtration, crystallisation, chromatography and distillation.
• Mixtures can be separated by physical processes such as filtration, crystallisation, simple distillation, fractional distillation and chromatography. These physical processes do not involve chemical reactions and no new substances are made.
• AT4 Safe use of a range of equipment to purify and/or separate chemical mixtures including evaporation, filtration, crystallisation, chromatography and distillation.
• 4 Safe use of a range of equipment to purify and/or separate chemical mixtures including evaporation, filtration, crystallisation, chromatography and distillation
• Safe use of a range of equipment to purify and/or separate chemical mixtures including evaporation, filtration, crystallisation, chromatography and distillation
• (i) atoms/molecules in mixtures not being chemically joined and mixtures being easily separated by physical processes such as filtration, evaporation, chromatography and distillation
• 1.9.5 investigate practically how mixtures can be separated using filtration, crystallisation, paper chromatography, simple distillation or fractional distillation (including using fractional distillation in the laboratory to separate miscible liquids…
• 2. Develop and use models to describe the nature of matter; demonstrate how they provide a simple way to to account for the conservation of mass, changes of state, physical change, chemical change, mixtures, and their separation.

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Salt or Sugar: Which Dissolves Faster in Different Liquids?

Solutions are nothing more than mixtures of different compounds or elements. You encounter solutions every day without even realizing it.

Even the air you breathe-which contains water-is a solution of a liquid and a gas. If you drank a soda today, you actually drank of solution of a gas dissolved in flavored water. If you're wearing a bracelet made of sterling silver, you're wearing a solution of two metals.

In this experiment, you'll be working with a liquid solution, which is one of three types of solutions. The other types are gaseous solutions and solid solutions.

So What Seems to Be the Problem?

Mixing a liquid in a gas makes another type of solution, called a gaseous solution. An example of this type of solution is humidity. Humidity is water (a liquid) dissolved in air (a gas).

In a solid solution , such as sterling silver, copper that has been heated at high temperatures is mixed with silver that also has been heated until it melts. The copper is the solute , which is the substance that will dissolve into the solvent . The silver is the solvent.

The type of solution is determined by the state of matter of the solvent. If the substance doing the dissolving is a liquid, the solution is called a liquid solution. If the solvent is a gas, the solution is called a gaseous solution. And you guessed right: A solid solvent will form a solid solution.

There are a few factors that generally increase the amount of solute that can be dissolved. If you want to dissolve more sugar in the same amount of water, for instance, you could heat the water. You also could grind the sugar into smaller particles to increase its surface area, or you could stir the mixture.

In the years that you've been using salt and sugar on your foods, you've probably noticed that each piece of salt-which actually is a crystal-is a little smaller than each piece of sugar, which also is a crystal.

The problem you'll be attempting to solve in this experiment is whether sugar or salt dissolves faster when mixed into various liquids. Does the size of the pieces affect how quickly they mix with the liquid?

When you dissolve sugar or salt in a liquid-say, water-what happens is that the sugar molecules move to fit themselves between the molecules of water within a glass or beaker. The illustration below shows how the different molecules are arranged in the container.

In your experiment, you'll see how salt and sugar molecules move within different liquids and dissolve at different rates.

The title of this section, "Salt or Sugar: Which Dissolves Faster in Different Liquids?" could serve as your project title, if you want. You also could consider one of the following titles for your project:

• The Great Salt vs. Sugar Dissolving Contest
• Using Salt and Sugar to Explore How Substances Dissolve

Whatever name you choose is fine. Let's take a minute now to consider why this project is a valuable use of your time.

What's the Point?

And when the excessive solute has been dissolved by heating the solution, it's said to be supersaturated .

The point of this experiment, in addition to learning whether salt or sugar dissolves faster in various liquids, is to learn how molecules interact in a solution.

As you saw in the preceding illustration, the water molecules take up most of the room in the container. But there is still some available space in which the sugar or salt molecules can fit. Through your experiment, you'll learn how fast the sugar molecules fit into those spaces, as compared to the salt particles.

Knowing this will help you better understand the process that occurs as a substance dissolves.

The control in your experiment will be water. The other liquids in which you dissolve salt and sugar will be the variables.

Remember when you conduct your experiment that it's very important that the liquids you use are all the same temperature. You already learned that sugar dissolves faster in a warm liquid than in a cool one, so you know it wouldn't be an accurate experiment if some of the liquids you use are warm and some are cold. The temperature of the liquid would become a variable.

Therefore, all the liquids you use-including water-should be at room temperature. If you normally keep them in the fridge, be sure to allow them to sit out on the counter overnight until they are all the same temperature.

To give you a little more flexibility when you conduct the experiment, you may choose the liquids in which you'll dissolve sugar and salt. There's no point in having to go out and buy additional liquids if you've already got what you need.

Just make sure you choose liquids that are different from each other in taste, color, odor, and purpose. You'll also need to select those that allow you to observe the salt and sugar as it dissolves. If you use milk or orange juice, for example, you won't be able to watch the salt and sugar dissolve. Some suggestions for liquids to consider are:

• White vinegar
• Glass cleaner (such as Windex)
• Tea or iced tea (each at room temperature)
• Apple juice
• Rubbing alcohol

All of these are commonly found around the house, perhaps saving you a trip to the store.

What Do You Think Will Happen?

Now that you know how solutions are formed and some of the factors that will affect the speed at which the sugar and salt you'll be using will dissolve, you should be able to make a good guess as to which one will dissolve faster.

While you won't know until after your experiment if properties of the different liquids you choose will affect the rate at which the salt and sugar dissolve, you do know that salt crystals are generally smaller than sugar crystals. And you know that the temperature of the liquids will not be a factor in your experiment.

Just try to use your past experiences, the information you've read earlier in this section, and your common sense to come up with a sound hypothesis.

Remember that your hypothesis must be stated as an objective sentence, not a question. So go ahead and -make your guess as to whether the salt or sugar will dissolve faster, and let's get started with the experiment.

Materials You'll Need for This Project

Some liquids suggested for use in this experiment are white vinegar, club soda, ginger ale, glass cleaner, rubbing alcohol, apple juice, lemonade, and tea. If you want to substitute another liquid for one or more of the ones suggested, that's fine. Just be sure that all liquids are clear and at room temperature.

The amounts of materials listed below are enough for you to conduct the experiment three times with each liquid. You'll need:

• 12 clear, plastic cups (10 ounce [300 ml])
• One permanent marker
• One (1 teaspoon) (5.0 ml) measuring spoon
• One ( 1 2 teaspoon) (2.5 ml) measuring spoon
• One (1 cup) (240 ml) measuring cup
• 8 teaspoons (40 ml) salt, divided in 16 ( 1 2 teaspoon) portions
• 8 teaspoons (40 ml) sugar, divided in 16 ( 1 2 teaspoon) portions
• 48 ounces (1,440 ml) water at room temperature
• 24 ounces (720 ml) each of five different, clear liquids, all at room temperature
• One clock or watch with a second hand
• One clear plastic cup containing eight fluid ounces (240 ml) water at room temperature

Remember to make sure that all liquids are at room temperature.

Conducting Your Experiment

When you've gathered all your materials, you'll be ready to begin your experiment. Just follow these steps:

• Using the permanent marker, write "salt" on six of the plastic cups, and "sugar" on the other six.
• Place 1 / 2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) of salt into each of the six cups labeled "salt."
• Place 1 / 2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) of sugar into each of the six cups labeled "sugar."
• Add 8 ounces (240 ml) water to one cup containing salt, and one cup containing sugar. Immediately record the time at which the water was added on a data chart similar to the one shown in the next section, "Keeping Track of Your Experiment."
• Observe the solutes (salt and sugar) dissolving in the solvent (water). Record on the data chart the time at which it appears to you that each solute has completely dissolved. These times will probably not be the same.
• Calculate the elapsed time during which the dissolving occurred. Take the time at which the water was added to the cups and the dissolving started, and subtract it from the time the dissolving ended. This gives you the total minutes it took for the salt and sugar to completely dissolve in the liquid.
• Repeat steps 4 through 6, using each different liquid instead of the water.
• Wash, rinse, and thoroughly dry each of the 12 cups.
• Repeat steps 2 through 8 two more times, for a total of three trials for each of the six liquids.
• Calculate an average dissolving time for the salt and the sugar in each of the six liquids.

Remember that to find the average time it took for the salt and sugar to dissolve in each liquid, you add the three times recorded for each one, then divide them by three. The number you get when you divide the times is the average time.

Keeping Track of Your Experiment

Charts such as the following one can be used to record information for each solvent. Simply change the names of the solvents in the heading.

Be sure to record the times as you go along. Don't depend on your memory to write them down later. You're going to have a lot of numbers by the time you finish your experiment.

Putting It All Together

What did you notice about the rates at which the salt and the sugar dissolved? Did you prove your hypothesis to be correct? Or incorrect? Could you detect any type of pattern as you added the salt and sugar to the various liquids? Was it obvious that the salt dissolved better and faster in some liquids compared to the sugar? Can you think of any reasons for which that might have occurred?

Do you think that the chemical natures of the solute and the solvent affected the dissolving rates? Use the information you gathered when you researched your topic to help you answer these questions.

The more you know about your project, the better able you'll be to analyze your data correctly and come up with a sound conclusion.

Further Investigation

As mentioned earlier, the factors affecting the solubility of solid solutes are:

• Increasing or decreasing the temperature of the solvent
• Increasing the surface area of the solute

If you wanted to take this project a step or two further, you could design an experiment that would test one-or perhaps all-of these variables.

You could easily compare the rate at which sugar cubes dissolve in liquid with the dissolving rate of granulated sugar.

Or you could use the same solute-say, sugar-and test whether stirring the solution caused it to dissolve faster. Heating and cooling the solvent as you add the same solute also would be a possibility for further experimentation.

If you're curious and willing to experiment, you probably can think of many variations for this project. And, because the experiment calls for only common, inexpensive materials, you should be able to experiment to your heart's content.

Easy and fun hands-on chemistry experiment

Students learn about molecules and solutions with this hands-on science activity, performing a series of experiments to determine whether sugar or salt dissolves faster when mixed into various liquids.

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• Tom Kuntzleman's blog

Solution to Chemical Mystery #8: Go Blue!

Preface : I am proposing a challenge based on this mystery. If you wish to know more about this challenge, please be sure to read the Challenge section found at the end of this blog post.

Congratulations to Grazyna Zreda and Alfredo Tifi who both solved Chemical Mystery #8 . While neither Grazyna nor Alfredo figured out exactly how I pulled off this trick, they both determined that I was making use of the “salting out” phenomenon. In the “salting out” experiment, a water-soluble ionic salt is added to a mixture of water and a water-soluble organic liquid. If enough salt is added, the mixture separates into two layers: one rich in water, and the other rich in the organic liquid. 1   You can see how this works (and also the solution to Mystery #8) in the video below:

In Mystery #8 I used acetone as the water soluble organic liquid and table salt as the ionic substance. I first mixed acetone, water, and two different dyes without adding any salt. The yellow dye was obtained from yellow food dye, while the blue dye was obtained from blue glitter. The dye on blue glitter dissolves very well in acetone, but not so well in water. The other yellow dye dissolves very well in water, but not so well in acetone.

Acetone and water dissolve well in one another due to hydrogen bonding interactions between the oxygen atom on acetone molecules and the O-H bond on water molecules (Figure 1).

acetone and water

Figure 1: Representation of a hydrogen bond (yellow dashed line) formed between a molecule of acetone (lower molecule) and a molecule of water (upper molecule). Image made using Odyssey modeling software.

All four of these components mixed very well together (acetone, water, blue dye, yellow dye) to form a green colored solution results. When a lot of table salt was added, the green solution separated into two layers: a blue colored, acetone rich layer on top and a yellow-colored, salt-water rich layer on bottom. How did this occur?

When the salt dissolved into the mixture, the resulting Na + and Cl - ions interacted very strongly with water molecules through ion-dipole forces (Figure 2). These ion-dipole interactions attracted water molecules much more strongly than the acetone-water hydrogen bonds. As a result, the ion-dipole forces pulled water molecules away from acetone molecules and the liquids separated into the two separate phases. The yellow dye, which dissolves better in water than in acetone, ended up in the salt water layer. The blue dye, which dissolves better in acetone, ended up in the acetone layer.

hydrated chloride ion

Figure 2: Representation of a chloride ion (green) interacting with six water molecules through ion-dipole forces (yellow dashed line). Image made with Odyssey modeling software.

What is interesting about this project is that one can use many different combinations of dyes, organic liquids, and salts to achieve different effects. For example, Graznya Zreda “solved” this mystery by reporting that she mixed yellow food dye, water, blue food dye (in place of the blue dye found on glitter), isopropyl alcohol (in place of acetone), and potassium carbonate (in place of salt). Upon mixing these items a beautiful green solution was observed; adding potassium carbonate separated the mixture into the blue and green layers (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Experiment carried out by one of Grazyna Zreda's students. Left to right: Test tubes containing yellow food dye in water and blue food dye in 70% isopropyl alcohol; Mixing the yellow and blue fluids to form a green solution; Addition of potassium carbonate to form a green solution; separation into blue and yellow layers upon dissolution of potassium carbonate.  

Grazyna and I began communicating on Twitter about these experiments, and one afternoon we even spent an hour or two “together”, electronically messaging back and forth about various experiments we were trying. This was really a lot of fun! Throughout our combined efforts, we discovered some really cool things. First, green food dye alone (in place of both blue and yellow) can be used in Grazyna’s version of this experiment! That’s because green food dye contains a combination of blue and yellow food dye. Second, using different blends of organic liquid and ionic salts with blue food dye and purple “fall color” food dye resulted in completely different results (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Color combinations achieved using blue food dye, purple “fall color” food dye in conjunction with (Left) acetone, salt, and water; (right) isopropyl alcohol, potassium carbonate, and water.

Challenge: Finally, here is a challenge I am proposing for you and your students based on this experiment: See if you can create layers that display your school colors by modifying this experiment using different combinations of ionic salts, dyes, miscible organic liquids and water. If you achieve this, see what other color arrangements you can create. I'm particularly interested in seeing a purple/green combination! I would love to hear from you regarding different combinations you are able to create. Of course I would also be interested in hearing about your various successful recipes if you are willing to share them! Be creative…dyes can come from a surprising number of different sources…like glitter, of all things! 

Reference: Shakhashiri, Chemical Demonstrations Volume 3, p. 266 – 268.

General Safety

For Laboratory Work:  Please refer to the ACS  Guidelines for Chemical Laboratory Safety in Secondary Schools (2016) .  

For Demonstrations: Please refer to the ACS Division of Chemical Education Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations .

Other Safety resources

RAMP : Recognize hazards; Assess the risks of hazards; Minimize the risks of hazards; Prepare for emergencies

All comments must abide by the ChemEd X Comment Policy , are subject to review, and may be edited. Please allow one business day for your comment to be posted, if it is accepted.

Comments 16, love this activity.

Made a couple of these and put them on my desk.  Lots of non stop questions from students....awesome demonstration.

Glad you like it!

Thank you for letting me know you tried this out, Chad. Be sure to let me know if you or your students come up with some new color combinations.

Very nice demonstration.

Very nice demonstration. Thanks a LOT! I was looking different kind of demonstrations and especially some food color in the separatory funnel. Now I know to add purple color to water or salt water, put it on the separatory funnel and pour some acetone in the funnel... I hope that in Finland there is same kind purple color that you have. :)

I hadn't a suitable purple color at moment and I used Bromothymol Blue (BTB) with two drops of vinegar together with Brilliant blue (E133 in Europe) and BTB with a little sodium bicarbonate with yellow tartrazine (E102) or yellow 5. I haven't photos to decide which combination was better because the students tested the two alternative ways and kept photos in their smartphones, that means these are lost-unshared forever :-). In any case, BTB was extracted in the acetone phase both in the acidic and basic form.

I'm gonna have to try this...

Alfredo, this sounds very interesting. I'll be trying your experiment next time I'm in the lab. Thanks for sharing!

Keep experimenting!

Hi, Juha, thank you for commenting. Be sure to add sodium chloride, potassium carbonate, or some other inorganic salt to the water. If you can't find the purple food color, just go ahead and experiment with whatever dyes you can find. In my experience, there are several different top layer/ bottom layer color combinations that are possible using various combinations of dye, inorganic salt, and organic solvent. Please let me know if you come up some interesting new color combination!

Curious if anyone knows what blue dye is used on the glitter?  I would love to be able to have my students analyze the structures of both dyes to try to explain why one is more soluble in water and the other in acetone.

If you find out the answer to this, be sure to share it with us!

Slides to accompany

I used this to help my AP Chem students understand IMFs and polarity. I made some slides so that they could go along with this. In case anyone else would like the resource:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cH3WhPrmy0_20GMcZuFiBJQA5VTrFIS8...  

Thank you so much for creating this post and the instructions!! My students LOVED it.

Hi Shelbie:

Thank you so much for sharing your slides with us. It looks like you and your students have made some interesting color combinations as well. FANTASTIC!!

indigo is the blue dye?

thanks for your google slides. I didn't know that indigo (used in blue jeans) was the dye in blue glitter! I guess i never thought about it. Is this listed anywhere or how did you find out this. Just curious.

Very interesting! I'm going to save it to launch a challenge to my students!!

Polarity of dyes?

Thanks for a great video - I'm hoping to use this experiment with my students but hoping you can shed some light on a problem I'm having... Using green food dye I get a wonderful separation with the yellow dye in the bottom layer of more dense K2CO3 solution, and the blue dye in the upper layer of less dense isopropyl alcohol. This suggests that the yellow dye is more polar than the blue dye. HOWEVER, when I use that same green dye in paper chromatography, with water as the mobile phase, the blue dye travels further than the yellow, suggesting the blue dye is more polar than the yellow! Am I getting the layers the wrong way around - is the isopropyl alcohol in fact denser than the K2CO3 solution?

This is an extremely interesting question! Your results with the paper chromatography experiment potentially make some sense if we recall that paper generally contains a lot of cellulose, and is therefore quite polar. I suggest running the paper chromatography experiment again using acetone or isopropyl alcohol as the mobile phase. My guess is you will get the same result (blue dye traveling further than the yellow dye), but the yellow dye shouldn't travel as far as it does when water is the mobile phase.

Let me know how it works for you if you try using alcohol or acetone as the mobile phase! 

Strange color change

Somewhat similar to Sasha's comment. I had one group that got the blue acetone on top and the other color on the bottom in the salt layer. Pretty soon, two groups came up to me with blue going to the bottom and the top solution was PINK! My brain stuck for a second and then was wondering what in the world happened. I can tell you that the bottom layer is salty and the top is acetone, but now my blue color went to the bottom. Here are some variables that have me wondering where to go next with this. The kids could choose whatever color they wanted in the water and I had some neon food coloring choices. I took out the blue and actually added a drop to the acetone because I was impatient for the blue to come off the glitter. It worked great with the other groups and seemed to be working fine. Then, I get this random pink coloring on top and blue on the bottom. I'm thinking that the neon dyes did this, but I want to know your thoughts on how to further this to figure out exactly what took place. 

Check out Figure 4 in this blog post. Is this what you observed?

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How to Separate Salt and Sugar

If you spill sugar and salt together in your kitchen, it’s not worth the effort to separate them. But, you can separate salt and sugar mixtures as a science project to learn about chemical and physical properties and separation chemistry. Here are three ways to separate salt and sugar, plus one that seems like it should work, but really doesn’t.

Separate Salt and Sugar Using Solubility

Both salt and sugar dissolve in water. However, sugar (sucrose) is much more soluble in alcohol than salt (sodium chloride) is. For all practical purposes, salt is insoluble in alcohol. The solubility of salt is 14 g/kg in methanol (25 °C or 77 °F) and 0.65 g/kg in ethanol (25 °C or 77 °F). If you ever plan on eating the salt or sugar, use ethanol to separate the components of the mixture because methanol is toxic. If efficiency is your goal, use methanol because you’ll need less of it to dissolve the salt, leaving the sugar behind. Evaporate or boil off the alcohol to recover the salt.

Be aware this method doesn’t work nearly as well if you don’t use absolute alcohol. If you try to separate sugar and salt using 50% alcohol, it’s likely there will be enough water in the liquid to dissolve both components of the mixture!

Separate Salt and Sugar Using Density

The density of pure table salt (NaCl) is 2.17 g/cm 3 , while the density of pure table sugar (sucrose) is 1.587 g/cm 3 . So, to separate the pure solids, you could shake the mixture. The heavier salt will sink to the bottom of the container. While the material at the top of the container will be almost pure sugar and that at the bottom will be almost pure salt, it may be hard to tell where one compound ends and the other begins. You won’t be able to get 100% separation using only this method.

Separate Salt and Sugar Using Crystal Shape

If you have infinite time and patience, you can separate sugar and salt in a mixture with a magnifying glass and pair of tweezers. Salt crystals are cubic, while sugar crystals are monoclinic hexagons.

What About Using Melting Point?

Sugar is a covalent compound, while salt is an ionic compound. So, you might predict you can separate sugar and salt using melting point . The melting point of salt is very high (800.7 °C or 1473.3 °F). The problem is sugar decomposes at 186 °C (367 °F) rather than melts. If you try to separate the components of the mixture using heat, all you’ll get is burned sugar (carbon) and salt. Save this method for separating salt and sand (although there are better options).

• Burgess, J (1978). Metal Ions in Solution . New York: Ellis Horwood. ISBN 978-0-85312-027-8.
• Rumble, John (ed.) (2019). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (100th ed.). CRC Press. ISBN:978-1138367296.
• Westphal, Gisbert et al. (2002) “Sodium Chloride” in Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry . Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. doi: 10.1002/14356007.a24_317.pub4
• Wilson, Ian D.; Adlard, Edward R.; Cooke, Michael; et al., eds. (2000).  Encyclopedia of Separation Science . San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-226770-3.

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Overexpression of auxin/indole-3-acetic acid gene triaa27 enhances biomass, drought, and salt tolerance in arabidopsis thaliana.

1. Introduction

2.1. sequence characteristics of triaa27, 2.2. expression pattern of white clover gene triaa27 in response to different stimuli, 2.3. subcellular localization of triaa27, 2.4. overexpression of triaa27 improves plant size and roots of transgenic arabidopsis thaliana plants, 2.5. overexpression of triaa27 in a. thaliana improved drought stress tolerance of transgenic plants, 2.6. overexpression of triaa27 improved the salt stress resistance of transgenic arabidopsis, 2.7. physiological indicators and enzyme activity under drought and salt stress in wild and overexpression arabidopsis, 3. discussion, 4. materials and methods, 4.1. plant materials and growth conditions, 4.2. exogenous treatment of heavy metal, abiotic stress, signalling molecules, and phytohormones to white clover and sample collection, 4.3. drought and salt stress treatments in arabidopsis, 4.4. isolation of the iaa27 gene from white clover, 4.5. bioinformatics analysis, 4.6. total rna isolation, construction of cdna, and qrt-pcr analysis, 4.7. plasmid construction and genetic transformation, 4.8. subcellular localization, 4.9. determination of relative water contents (rwc), 4.10. determination of relative electrical conductivity (el), 4.11. determination of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, 4.12. determination of malondialdehyde (mda) content, 4.13. measuring h 2 o 2 , cat, and pod, 4.14. statistical analysis, 5. conclusions, supplementary materials, author contributions, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Iqbal, M.Z.; Liang, Y.; Anwar, M.; Fatima, A.; Hassan, M.J.; Ali, A.; Tang, Q.; Peng, Y. Overexpression of Auxin/Indole-3-Acetic Acid Gene TrIAA27 Enhances Biomass, Drought, and Salt Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plants 2024 , 13 , 2684. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192684

Iqbal MZ, Liang Y, Anwar M, Fatima A, Hassan MJ, Ali A, Tang Q, Peng Y. Overexpression of Auxin/Indole-3-Acetic Acid Gene TrIAA27 Enhances Biomass, Drought, and Salt Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plants . 2024; 13(19):2684. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192684

Iqbal, Muhammad Zafar, Yuzhou Liang, Muhammad Anwar, Akash Fatima, Muhammad Jawad Hassan, Asif Ali, Qilin Tang, and Yan Peng. 2024. "Overexpression of Auxin/Indole-3-Acetic Acid Gene TrIAA27 Enhances Biomass, Drought, and Salt Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana " Plants 13, no. 19: 2684. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192684

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