Why does deionized water make more bubbles

Learn more physics! Related Questions. Still Curious? What is dieonized water? Deionized Water We call it "DI water" in the chemistry labs is just what it sounds like: Water that has the ions removed. Water is usually deionized by using an ion exchange process. Why de-ionize water? Often, when you are doing chemistry experiments, the ions in water will be an interference. They can switch places with other ions you may be interested in experimenting on. You may also be interested in finding out what elements are in a small sample of material.

For example, a farmer may want to know what's in his soil, or the Environmental Protection Agency wants to know what a factory's emitting into the air. Dissolving the sample in water and doing tests on the result is a common technique, and contaminants in the water will make the whole test give the wrong answers.

Water with ions in it is also quite a lot more electrically conductive than water without ions in it. If you boil water with lots of ions in it until all the water's gone, you'll have a crusty salt residue in your pot. We guess de-ionized water isn't necessarily pure water, given the usual de-ionization procedure. Non-ionic contaminants may persist. Electrically polar molecules dissolve easily in water, and some complicated molecules have polar ends and non-polar ends, which can help non-polar stuff like oils mix in water.

Soap is an example. Soapy water may count as deionized, but most people would insist that their de-ionized water doesn't have much other stuff in it. Jason and Tom Special note for Reddit users. I noticed that somebody who linked to this answer got the impression that deionized water really has no ions. You can't stop that chemical equilibrium from occurring just by pulling out the other ions.

I keep hearing about using distilled or deionized water in the radiator to extend the life of the aluminum and solder in a car radiator. It seems that distilled water would be a better choice than deionized water. What would be the least corrosive? De-ionized water is water that lacks ions coming from sodium, calcium etc. It still may contain other organic junk.

Distilled water is purer. To make hard water, mix distilled water or water from a dehumidifier tank with Epsom salts about a teaspoon in two cups.

Use distilled water as the soft water. Put a bit of grated soap in each bottle, put the lid on tightly. Which has more bubbles? What else is there? Try the experiment again with a drop of washing up liquid.

What happens? This means there is less soap for making bubbles, or for cleaning. Detergents do not form scum, but the calcium and magnesium salts react with the detergent, leaving less for making bubbles, or for cleaning. People in hard water areas have to use more soap and detergent than people in soft water areas.

Water in homes can be softened using salt — however, this water has too much sodium for drinking and cooking, so there will be a separate tap for drinking water. What shape are the bubbles made from these differently shaped pipe cleaner wands? Observations and results Did the solutions with glycerin or corn syrup produce bubbles that lasted longer? Did the solution with glycerin make the longest-lasting bubbles of all? Detergent lowers the surface tension of water enough so that bubbles can form.

A bubble formed from a solution with water and detergent is a spherical layer of water molecules that is surrounded on either side by a layer of detergent molecules.

Parts of the detergent molecules are attracted to water which means they are known as hydrophilic and other parts do not want to be near water they are hydrophobic. Because of this, the detergent molecules in the bubble become oriented so that their hydrophilic parts touch the water and their hydrophobic parts face outward, touching the air. The solution with only water and detergent probably made smaller, shorter-lived bubbles compared to the solutions with glycerin or corn syrup.

Bubbles burst when the layer of water molecules between the detergent molecules evaporates. But Glycerin and corn syrup form weak bonds with the water molecules and slow down the evaporation process, thus improving the life span and durability of the bubble.

Glycerin makes stronger, longer-lasting bubbles, but corn syrup is often substituted in bubble solutions because it is cheaper. Can you find other substances around the house that can be added to water to make a bubble solution? If you try products such as shampoo or liquid hand soap, you can check their ingredients to see what might be helping to make the bubbles form. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American.

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