Chemistry_Keegan
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Registered: 16-2-2013
Location: Nova Scotia
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Unidentifiable Liquids
Many months ago I extracted two liquids from a decoration that I had no use for. There is a translucent blue one and a completely transparent clear
one. The clear one floats on top of the blue one, unless you mix them aggressively, but they will eventually separate just like water and oil. One of
them appears to be volatile, and I am pretty sure it is the clear one because the condensed vapors aren't blue (unless the blue liquid is a mixture of
multiple liquids). I separated as much of the clear liquid as I could with a pipette, but I can't completely because I don't have a separatory funnel.
Another thing that probably proves that the clear liquid is volatile is that the cap of the test tube I am storing it in had a little liquid on it
(unless some of it was splashed onto the cap by accident at some point). Both liquids also appear to be very greasy and oily. And one last thing, at
least one of them smells like rubber, but I think this may be because the decoration had some little rubber sport balls floating around inside it.
Does anyone have any idea of what these liquids may be? I will post some pictures of them if it helps at all.
The blue liquid with a bit of clear liquid left floating on top of it (sorry the container is orange).
The clear liquid (nothing really special about it).
[Edited on 18-2-2013 by Chemistry_Keegan]
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Mailinmypocket
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What does the clear liquid smell like? Years ago we used to make cool looking displays by making a layer of water(with color or dye) and paint
thinner(mineral spirits)
The volatile thinner would be added to the rim of the bottle and sealed, the water then Would look like a pool of colored fluid on the bottom, you can
float little bits of plastic and such on the water surface. I made some pretty neat looking bottles, and they acted exactly the way you describe when
mixed, two clean phases would always separate quickly.
In your case the volatile might be something else, but the smell of mineral spirits is pretty characteristic.
[Edited on 18-2-2013 by Mailinmypocket]
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Chemistry_Keegan
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It still smells like rubber to me, but once again, it is probably just from the little rubber things that where floating around inside it.
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