Miscible

The chemistry term miscible refers to the property of various liquids that allows them to be mixed together. By contrast, substances are said to be immiscible if they cannot be mixed together, e.g., oil and water.

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In organic compounds, the length of the carbon chain often determines miscibility relative to members of the homologous series. For example, in the alcohols, ethanol has two carbon atoms and is miscible with water, whereas octanol has eight carbon atoms and is not miscible with water. Octanol's immiscibility leads it to be used as a standard for partition equilibria. This is also the case with lipids, the very lengthy carbon chains of lipids cause them to almost always be immiscible with water.

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Miscibility can arise for a number of reasons. In the alcohol examples above, the group can form hydrogen bonds with water molecules. In aldehydes and ketones the hydrogen bond can form with a lone pair of electrons on the carbonyl oxygen atom.

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Chemistry: Chemistry (in Greek: χημεία) is the science of matter that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo. In the study of matter, chemistry also investigates its interactions with energy and itself (se...

Liquid: A liquid (a phase of matter) is a fluid whose volume is fixed under conditions of constant temperature and pressure; and, whose shape is usually determined by the container it fills. Furthermore, liquids exert pressure on the sides of a container as well as on anything within the liquid itself; this...

Oil: Oil is a generic term for organic liquids that are not miscible with water. The name comes from Latin oleum (olive oil)....