A. Concise definition of "mixture" vs. solution To be honest, the definitions here depend somewhat on the context (i.e.

, it depends on whom you ask). But we'll follow the definitions employed by the kit manual, which are as follows: any combination of two different materials which don't react is a mixture, while solutions are a special kind of mixture where mixing occurs at the molecular level. Thus, all solutions are mixtures, but not all mixtures are solutions. To make the distinction clear, we'll use the phrase "physical mixture" to denote a mixture which is not a solution. So, by this definition, both muddy water and Kool-Aid are mixtures of solid and liquid (that's how they're prepared), but only Kool-Aid is a solution. The restriction to "materials which don't react" is needed because if materials do react, they can form a new pure substance (a compound), which (since it's pure) is not a mixture. The "fizz quiz" part of the kit introduces chemical reactions. But a "mixture" consists of two or more species which could be separated by purely physical (vs. chemical) means. "Physical means" would include filtration, evaporation, distillation, etc. but would not require a chemical reaction. Another way of looking at this is that the species retain their chemical identities when made into a mixture (like the salt and water which go to make salt water), but they would not retain their chemical identities if a chemical reaction occurred. Operationally, the kit implicitly defines a mixture as something which can be separated by passing it through the coffee filter (if not a coarser filter). This is problematic, since there are many mixtures (milk, latex paint, etc.) where the particles are so small that they pass right through the coffee filter, but these materials are not solutions. Milk and latex paint are physical mixtures (described more fully in sections B.1.a and B.2.a below), but they can't be separated by the coffee filter. We'll discuss and demonstrate this further in Petroleum Refining and Milk. Another operational definition which is just as easy to use, but probably harder to explain, is based on optical clarity. If you can see individual solid particles or liquid droplets in the mixture, then clearly it's a physical mixture and not a solution. Also, if the mixture is hazy or opaque (like milk or latex paint), it's a physical mixture. This is because small objects (whether solid, liquid, or gas) scatter light and prevent a light ray from passing straight through the sample. Finally, if the mixture appears clear (it can be colored, like Kool-Aid, but can't be hazy or have things suspended in it), then it's almost certainly a solution. A nice microscope picture (taken by Neena Tierney on the Philips XL-30 scanning electron microscope in the Princeton Materials Institute) of a coffee filter is shown HERE, along with a short description. This image clearly shows the paper fibers, which are about 20 microns across (a human hair has a typical diameter of 70 microns), and the pores formed by the fibers. B. Examples of familiar mixtures and solutions Mixtures can be made from any number of components, and these components can come from any of the three states of matter: solid (S), liquid (L), or gas (G). So, if we just consider binary (two-component) mixtures, then we can have mixtures of six types: S/S, S/L, S/G, L/L, L/G, G/G. Moreover, these combinations could (at least in principle) be either physical mixtures or solutions. Some of these categories aren't very interesting. A solid/gas (S/G) mixture is in fact what we have every time we look at a particulate solid (pile of dry sand, bag of flour, stack of oranges), but we normally ignore the gas (air). Gas/gas mixtures are always solutions, and not very exciting for demonstration

since there's nothing to see. For example, typical air is a mixture of about 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, about 1% water vapor (depending on humidity), and a bunch of trace constituents including carbon dioxide, but it's not perceptibly different from pure nitrogen (except that one wouldn't be able to breathe without the oxygen!). So, let's consider some examples from each of the other four categories: Here is an outline of the categories of solutions 1. Liquid/Solid Mixtures. a. Physical mixtures. i. Mud. A familiar mixture of water and dirt. The dirt does not dissolve in the water, though some particles of dirt may be small enough to make it through the coffee filter. ii. Skim milk. Skim milk is mostly water, but contains very small particles ("micelles") of a protein called casein. These casein particles scatter light and cause milk to appear white, as noted above. These casein particles are normally so small that they pass right through the coffee filter, and even smaller-pore filters that we have in the lab. However, if the milk is curdled, the casein particles coagulate together into curds which are big enough to separate with the coffee filter or even to see with the naked eye. This is discussed more in a subsequent section, where a good extension based around milk is described. iii. Latex paint. Latex paint is typically about 70% water and 30% particles of a polymer, or plastic, the material which eventually forms the hard paint coat when the paint dries. Pigments are often added as well to give the paint color and opacity in its dry form. The polymer particles scatter light and cause the latex to appear white, as noted above. These latex particles are normally so small that they pass right through the coffee filter, and even the smaller-pore filters we have in the lab. Latex paint is formulated to be resistant to coagulation, so it doesn't make as good a demonstration as skim milk. iv. Cake batter. Cake batter is a complex mixture, but essentially what you see is a mixture of a solid (flour, mostly) with a liquid (milk, mostly). b. Solutions i. Kool-Aid. A familiar mixture of water (liquid), sugar (solid), and flavoring (solid, either crystals or powder). Kool-Aid is clear (though typically colored), which is a giveaway that it's a solution. ii. Seawater. Clean seawater is a mixture of water (liquid) and a variety of solid minerals, among which salt (sodium chloride) predominates. Again, the optical clarity of seawater is a giveaway that its constituents form a solution, rather than a physical mixture. 2. Liquid/Liquid Mixtures. a. Physical mixtures.

i. Vinaigrette salad dressing. A familiar mixture of oil (usually olive oil) and vinegar; vinegar is mostly water, but is in fact a solution of acetic acid (what causes the vinegar smell) in water. Oil and water don't dissolve appreciably in each other, so vinaigrette dressing is a physical mixture; indeed, if you let it sit still for a few minutes, it will separate cleanly into a top oil layer and a bottom vinegar layer. (The vinegar is slightly denser than the oil, so it "falls" under gravity to form the bottom layer just as rocks fall to the bottom of a swimming pool.) Salad dressing formulations sometimes also include solid spices (pepper), making the mixture even more complicated: it now has two liquid phases, one pure (oil) and one a solution (vinegar), plus a solid phase (pepper). ii. Whole milk. Like skim milk, whole milk is mostly water and contains casein, but whole milk also contains significant quantities of butterfat. (It's the butterfat that is skimmed off as cream (cream is just a more concentrated mixture of butterfat in water) to form butter, etc. More on milk products is given in a subsequent section.) The butterfat is a liquid; the casein molecules help to suspend the butterfat as small particles in the mixture, so whole milk is really a liquid/liquid mixture. Without the casein, the butterfat and water would separate into distinct layers, like the layers in vinaigrette salad dressing. As it is, the particles in whole milk are small enough that they pass right through the coffee filter. However, if the milk is curdled, the casein particles coagulate together into slippery curds which are big enough to separate with the coffee filter or even to see with the naked eye. This is discussed more in a subsequent section, where a good extension based around milk is described. b. Solutions. Coming up with familiar examples here was tricky. While many familiar products are made by blending two liquids (e.g., Coke from soda water and Coke syrup), one or more of those liquids is typically a water-based solution of a solid. So when one makes Coke, one is actually just diluting the water-based Coke syrup (a solution of several solids in water) with more water. i. Vinegar. As noted above, vinegar is a solution of acetic acid (a liquid when pure) in water. ii. Antifreeze. Automotive antifreeze is a solution, about equal parts of ethylene glycol and water. (The green color of Prestone isn't "natural"; coloring agent is added to make the fluid "drips" easy to distinguish on the garage floor.) While water freezes at 32oF, ethylene glycol doesn't freeze until 9oF, and solutions of the two don't actually freeze until temperatures lower than either. This points out one important property of solutions (vs. physical mixtures): freezing point depression. That's why one puts salt on the roads to melt the ice during winter; salt water doesn't freeze until the temperature is well below 32oF (more discussion of this, go HERE). On the other hand, muddy water (a physical mixture) will still freeze at 32oF. iii. Gasoline. Gasoline is a mixture of hundreds of different species, most of which are liquids at room temperature when pure. That gasoline is a solution rather than a physical mixture is very important, because any solid particles in gasoline will clog the fuel filter. Fuel "stabilizers", which are recommended additives when storing gasoline for a long time (like in a lawn mower over the winter), essentially keep the few rogue compounds in gasoline from coming out of solution as solids (or at least as largeparticle solids-the stabilizer mostly keeps any particles or droplets very small, small

enough to pass through the fuel filter and burn properly in the engine). Also, water isn't soluble in gasoline, and water droplets will also cause problems; the stabilizers help to prevent the formation of water droplets as well. 3. Liquid/Gas Mixtures a. Physical Mixtures Foam. Any kind of foam is a mixture of gas (bubbles) in a liquid. Some examples would be bubblebath (the gas is air, the liquid is water; soap helps to stabilize the foam, making the bubbles last longer before "popping") or the head on a Coke (the gas is carbon dioxide, the liquid is mostly water). b. Solutions Seltzer water in the bottle. Seltzer water is essentially a mixture of water and carbon dioxide, where the two are mixed under pressure. At atmospheric pressure, the carbon dioxide wants to exit the liquid, which is why seltzer bubbles when you uncap it. However, when it's in the bottle (and under some pressure), the seltzer water is a solution of carbon dioxide in water. The kit talks about "reaching solubility" for solids in liquids, but gases also have solubility limits in liquids. For gases, the solubility limit depends not only on temperature (as with solids) but also on the pressure of the gas. So to make soda water, a high pressure of carbon dioxide is simply applied on top of a vessel of water, so that a significant amount of carbon dioxide dissolves in the water. When the pressure is removed, the carbon dioxide "undissolves", or bubbles out. Carbon dioxide has an unusually large solubility in water (which is why we don't make soda water just from air and water). This is due largely to a chemical reaction between carbon dioxide and water to form carbonic acid (CO2 + H2O H2CO3). But the principle of a pressure-dependent solubility is true for any gas and liquid. One neat trick you can do to make seltzer water "give up" its carbon dioxide quickly is to add a handful of table salt; this works best if you fill a tall skinny glass half full with seltzer water and then dump in the salt. If you've ever watched a glass of seltzer bubble (champagne works better), you'll notice that the bubbles come in streams which start somewhere on the glass. The starting spot is usually a tiny nick or scratch in the glass that acts as a "nucleation site" for the bubbles-that is, bubbles can form easily around a sharp corner. The salt simply provides many more sharp corners; the fact that the salt will eventually dissolve in the seltzer is irrelevant. 4. Solid/Solid Mixtures. a. Physical Mixtures. i. Blacktop. Blacktop is a mixture of gravel and asphalt. Asphalt is itself a complex substance, but it is mostly a mixture of compounds that are the residuum from petroleum refining. Asphalt is a solid at room temperature, but softens when heated, so that the blacktop can be spread hot. ii. Concrete is a similar solid/solid mixture (of cement and gravel), though in this case the cement is initially a liquid/solid mixture and becomes a solid through a chemical reaction (hence concrete is more complicated to explain). One can also imagine examples of solid-solid mixtures which are free-flowing solids: cake batter prior to

adding fluids (flour and sugar), a gravel road (mixture of gravel and dirt), or a bag full of assorted candies. b. Solutions. Metal alloys. Probably the most important examples of solid/solid solutions are metal alloys. The best-known is certainly steel, which is an alloy of iron and carbon, often with additional metal elements added in to provide special properties (like chromium and nickel, to make stainless steel). Copper alloys, such as brasses and bronzes, are also very common. A description of these copper alloys appears HERE. Because copper is red, it's particularly easy to show the effect of alloying, as the alloys have varying colors (ranging from silvery through yellow to red). For example, most American "silver" coins (quarter, dime, nickel) are actually made from a silver-colored alloy of copper and nickel (for dimes and quarters, there's an inner layer of pure copper which you can see if you look at the coin edge-on). Copper-nickel alloys are very hard and durable, making these coins last much longer in circulation than the silver coins that they replaced starting in 1965. C. Diatomaceous earth: properties and microscopic images

http://www.princeton.edu/~pccm/outreach/scsp/mixturesandsolutions/background.htm# def