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(b) Susie used water as the selvent in this experiment. When she repeated the experiment with a different set of pens , it did not work. She then used ethanol instead of water. Suggest why the experiment worked with ethanol but not with water.

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(b)
Susie used water as the selvent in this experiment.
When she repeated the experiment with a different set of pens , it did
not work.
She then used ethanol instead of water.
Suggest why the experiment worked with ethanol but not with water.

(b) Susie used water as the selvent in this experiment. When she repeated the experiment with a different set of pens , it did not work. She then used ethanol instead of water. Suggest why the experiment worked with ethanol but not with water.

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SionedProfessional · Tutor for 6 years

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<p> The experiment worked with ethanol and not with water because the ink from the have non-polar components in their ink that are better dissolved with a non-polar solvent like ethanol and not a polar solvent like water.</p>

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<p> The key point in this question lies in the nature of solvents and compounds. Chemistry teaches us that "like dissolves like". This means a polar substance (like water) tends to dissolve other polar substances, and a nonpolar substance (like oil or ethanol) tends to dissolve other nonpolar substances. In this context, susie first used water—a polar solvent—to dissolve the ink from a set of pens. If it worked, then that suggests the solute (ink) was also polar or at least had ionic or polar components. However, when she tried it with a different set of pens (presumably with different ink formulation), water couldn't dissolve the ink. From the fact that ethanol worked as a solvent, not water, it's apparent that those inks were more non-polar.<br /></p>
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