Homogeneous (chemistry)
Encyclopedia
A substance
Chemical substance
In chemistry, a chemical substance is a form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. It cannot be separated into components by physical separation methods, i.e. without breaking chemical bonds. They can be solids, liquids or gases.Chemical substances are...

 that is uniform in composition is a definition of homogeneous. This is in contrast to a substance that is heterogeneous.
The definition of homogeneous strongly depends on the context used. In Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, a homogeneous suspension
Suspension (chemistry)
In chemistry, a suspension is a heterogeneous fluid containing solid particles that are sufficiently large for sedimentation. Usually they must be larger than 1 micrometer. The internal phase is dispersed throughout the external phase through mechanical agitation, with the use of certain...

 of material means that when dividing the volume
Volume
Volume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by some closed boundary, for example, the space that a substance or shape occupies or contains....

 in half, the same amount of material is suspended in both halves of the substance. However, it might be possible to see the particles under a microscope
Microscope
A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy...

. An example of a homogeneous mixture is air. Air can be more specifically described as a gaseous solution (oxygen and other gases dissolved in the major component, nitrogen). Since interactions between molecules play almost no role, dilute gases form rather trivial solutions. In part of the literature, they are not even classified as solutions, but addressed as mixtures.

Homogeneity of mixtures

In Chemistry, some mixtures are homogeneous. In other words, mixtures have the same proportions throughout a given sample or multiple samples of different proportion to create a consistent mixture. However, two homogeneous mixtures of the same pair of substances may differ widely from each other and can be homogenized to make a constant. Mixtures can be characterized by being separable by mechanical means e.g. heat
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...

, filtration
Filtration
Filtration is commonly the mechanical or physical operation which is used for the separation of solids from fluids by interposing a medium through which only the fluid can pass...

, gravitation
Gravitation
Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...

al sorting, etc.ha

Solutions

A solution
Solution
In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of only one phase. In such a mixture, a solute is dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. The solvent does the dissolving.- Types of solutions :...

 is a special type of homogeneous mixture. Solutions are homogeneous because, the ratio of solute to solvent remains the same throughout the solution even if homogenized with multiple sources, and stable because, the solute will not settle out, no matter how long the solution sits, and it cannot be removed by a filter or a centrifuge
Centrifuge
A centrifuge is a piece of equipment, generally driven by an electric motor , that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis, applying a force perpendicular to the axis...

.
This type of mixture is very stable, i.e., its particles do not settle, or separate. As homogeneous mixture, a solution has one phase (liquid) although the solute and solvent can vary: for example, salt water.
In chemistry, a mixture is a substance containing two or more elements or compounds that are not chemically bound to each other but retain their own chemical and physical identities; - a substance which has two or more constituent chemical substances. Mixtures, in the broader sense, are two or more substances physically in the same place, but these are not chemically combined, and therefore ratios are not necessarily considered.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK