Acetone is a solvent that has many applications, including in paint stripping and nail polish remover. It’s also commonly used in the lab to dissolve other chemicals. One question that still remains unanswered is whether acetone dissolves in water at all.
In this article, we’ll explore the science behind solubility and learn more about what makes acetone soluble or insoluble in water.
What is Solubility?
Solubility is one of the most fundamental concepts in chemistry. It has applications in cooking, chemistry labs, and more. When solids dissolve into a liquid, these two substances merge and become the same.
The molecules that were part of the solid’s structure will mix with molecules from the solution until they’re distributed evenly throughout it.
There are two main considerations for solubility: concentration and temperature. It’s important to note that it can be challenging, and at times impossible, to measure the solubility of a liquid with just these two factors. The result you get will depend on how long you let the liquid mixture sit before taking a reading and on how you mix the liquid together.
Let’s start with concentration. When it comes to acetone, you can’t simply use its volume as an indicator of how much solvent is present. There are other mixtures of chemicals which you may see in bottles of nail polish remover or paint stripper- these also need to be considered when determining the concentration of acetone in a solution. In order to get an accurate measurement of how much acetone is present in a particular mixture, you’ll need to find the molarity. Molarity tells us exactly how many molecules are dissolved in one liter (or kilogram) of fluid- this means it’s useful for measuring solids and gases as well!
It turns out that at room temperature, acetone is only slightly soluble in water. If you have a bottle with nail polish remover or paint stripper that contains both acetone and other chemicals, the concentration of dissolved acetone will be about 0.02 M- however it’s possible to increase this number by adding another solvent! For example if you add ethanol (which is also a liquid at room temperature), the concentration of acetone goes up to 0.07 M, or if you add isopropanol (another commonly used solvent) it can go even higher than that! The highest solubility recorded was for dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)- this organic compound dissolves acetone in concentrations as high as 0.48 M at room temperature, which is far more than what we see with just water and acetone alone!
So how can you increase the solubility of acetone? You’ll need to add a second solvent in order for this mixture to dissolve higher concentrations of acetone. As mentioned above ethanol (also known as alcohol) and isopropanol (also known as rubbing alcohol) are commonly used to dissolve acetone due to their low cost and availability. However, if you want a more powerful solvent for dissolving higher concentrations of acetone you can use DMSO- it’s able to reach 0.48 M at room temperature which means that instead of needing a bottle of nail polish remover with a mix of solvents, you can just use pure DMSO for this purpose!
Temperature also plays an important role in determining the concentration and solubility of acetone. You may have noticed that some types of alcohol (such as ethanol) remain fluid even when it’s cold outside- this is because they have a lower freezing point than water. Acetone, however, has a very high boiling point of 56 degrees Celsius and this means it’s generally less soluble at higher temperatures compared to when it’s colder outside since the solubility will decrease as temperature increases. This makes sense for practical purposes- if you’re trying to dissolve acetone using water, it’s best to do it at lower temperatures so you can get the most accurate reading.
What is Acetone?
Acetone is a chemical that can be found in many products and applications. Acetone is used as a solvent by some people because it can dissolve and break bonds on solids and liquids. There are many factors that determine the solubility of acetone with water. Acetone is considered to be soluble in water if the concentration of acetone in water is higher than the concentration of water.
Acetone has many uses including being an industrial cleaning solvent for adhesives, rubber, ink, and oil; it is also present in certain kinds of nail polishes.
Conclusion
There are two main factors that determine solubility- concentration and temperature; when it comes to acetone, higher concentrations of dissolved acetone will be possible if you add more solvents; and the temperature of acetone determines how soluble it is, with lower temperatures being better for dissolving higher concentrations.
