Question

What happens if you mix acetone and water?

Answer 1

Hint: We need to first shortlist all the possibilities of what could be the outcome when we mix two different types of liquids/chemicals. This can have different results based on the solubility between two, the chemical reaction that can take place, resulting in heat absorption or heat release (i.e. endothermic or exothermic reactions), etc.

Complete answer:
The chemical formula of acetone is $C{H_3}COC{H_3}$ . If we see the structure of acetone, it is of the form:

Now, if we look at a water molecule, it has the molecular formula ${H_2}O$ . If we look at its structure, it is of the form:

When we add acetone to water, in that case, water acts as a solvent and acetone acts as a solute. On the other hand, if we add water in acetone, we realize that now acetone will act as a solvent and water will act as a solute. In both the cases, the reaction wouldn’t be any complex and would not form any different chemical product.
Although, there will be slight hydrogen bonding that will take place in the container in which we have mixed acetone and water. The H-bonding is of the form:

This hydrogen bonding is weak. Also, the mixture of water and acetone will be homogeneous and no two layers will be formed.

Note:
It is generally seen that the mixture of two liquids gives rise to an azeotrope mixture. However, in case of acetone-water mixture, the homogeneous solution will not have any azeotropic formation and the mixture can be easily separated by distillation process, since both have big differences in their boiling point.