Home > Community > How does adding a salt (such as sodium chloride) help to break an emulsion?
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+ Inorganic chemistry
+ Salt
+ Sodium
+ Chemistry
+ Sodium chloride
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Nora Roy

How does adding a salt (such as sodium chloride) help to break an emulsion?

Benson Wangombe  Follow

Lowest freezing point obtainable for common salt (NaCl) / brine (max. soluble 23.3% wt in water) is -21.1 °C (-6.0 °F).

Saturation point for salt solution in water is 23.3% . Further adding, will have salt as solid, plus water. So, adding salt to solidify chlorides in water is not feasible.

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BBIER? Lighting Manufacturer  Follow

You put salt on your grocery list along with an actual pregnancy test and use that. These at home folklore tests are nonsense.

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Don Welty  Follow

“How does adding a salt (such as sodium chloride) help to break an emulsion?”

Anika Shearing’s answer is right. Emulsions are colloidal dispersions of droplets of an liquid in another liquid, being both liquids immiscible.

Emulsions are usually kept stable by the presence of an emulsifier.

The emulsifier works by giving a surface charge to the droplet, and what makes emulsions stable is the sterical separation of the droplets due to several layers of ions and counter-ions around the charged droplet, forming a micelle.

The droplet is surrounded by layers of ions, being the most important the first one known as the Stern Layer.

Beyond the Stern Layer the droplet has a net charge, and an electrical potential called Zeta Potential. This potential can be measured, and the higher it is, the more stable is the emulsion in most cases.

What salt and other electrolytes do is to disturb the layers of ions around the micelle and reduce the Zeta Potential, making the emulsion unstable. The more charged is the ion of the electrolyte, the more effective it is in breaking emulsions.

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Brainfarction  Follow

Yes - one atom of sodium and one atom of chlorine. Isn’t it amazing that you can combine a metal that reacts “vigorously” with water and a toxic gas to make something that’s safe to eat?

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Arun Yadav  Follow

Table salt is mostly NaCl, but the composition of other substances can vary widely.

Within the other category, common cations are K, Ca, Mg, and Fe. Common anions are Cl, I, F, CO3, OH.

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Amal Fatima  Follow

Adding salt such as NaCl will increase the ionic strength of the aqueous layer and allow it to separate.

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The chloride will have a metal (sodium, potassium, nickel. whatever) and a flame test is very easy

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Arthur Macgregor  Follow

They can be, though I don't like the taste. There is one caveat. Some folks are on medications that can cause excess potassium in the blood. Since that can be serious or fatal, those people should not use potassium based salt substitutes.

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