Lecture 04, concept 05: The hydrophobic effect

Erik Lindahl2 minutes read

Adding oil to boiling pasta water forms a clathrate structure around oil droplets, leading to phase separation with less water molecules, driven by the entropic hydrophobic effect that causes oil to be less soluble in water at higher temperatures.

Insights

  • Adding oil to pasta water forms clathrates due to disrupted hydrogen bonds, creating a network structure around oil droplets.
  • The hydrophobic effect, entropic and temperature-dependent, causes oil to become less soluble in water at higher temperatures, leading to advantageous phase separation.

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Recent questions

  • Does adding oil to boiling pasta water affect the cooking process?

    Yes

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Summary

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Oil in Pasta Water Forms Clathrates

  • When boiling pasta, adding oil to the water causes small oil droplets to interact with the water, disrupting hydrogen bonds and forming a network structure around the oil droplets known as clathrates.
  • The merging of oil droplets results in a larger droplet with a clathrate structure involving fewer water molecules, leading to an advantageous separation of phases due to entropy gain.
  • The hydrophobic effect, entropic in nature, is distinct from normal solubility behavior, as increasing temperature does not enhance solubility but rather worsens the hydrophobic effect, making oil less soluble in water at higher temperatures.
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