Lab Demo 1.

5
Hydrophilicity – Hydrophobicity

This demonstration illustrates how hydrophilic and hydrophobic
fluids do not readily mix.
We are all familiar with how oil doesn’t mix with water. Adding olive oil to
salad dressing typically forms droplets of the oil in the aqueous solution.
Solution B is a common soap/detergent often used in shampoo. Soaps
are amphipathic having both hydrophobic moieties as well as strong
hydrophilic groups. In the case of B, the hydrophilic group is a negatively
charged SO4 group.
Finally Solution C is simply water!

When you add a bit of oil to water, the oil floats and forms a sharp, separate
Adding water to the n-butanol forms water droplets, much in the same way
layer. If you stir the mixture, oil droplets form in the water but gradually
as oil forms droplets in water, both fluids do not readily mix! Soap can
float to the top and reform the oil layer - clearly separated from the
bridge both worlds!
underlying water.

This is because water is hydrophilic and oil is hydrophobic.

Solution B is a common soap/detergent often used in shampoo. Soaps are amphipathic having both hydrophobic moieties as well
as strong
Here we examine hydrophilic
three solutions groups.
designated InC.the
A, B and case of B, the hydrophilic group is a negatively charged SO4 group.
The
demonstration illustrates how A fills the Petri dish. Adding C to solution A
forms droplets that do not mix. Solution B is able to bridge the two
solutions, A and C respectively.

As it turns out, A is a somewhat hydrophobic alcohol named n-butanol.

Four carbon atoms are linked together in chemical

bonds. All the valences are bound to hydrogen
atoms except for the single hydroxyl group at one
end of the molecule.
n-butanol