Name: ______________________
Salad Dressing Science: Emulsions
Background
If you’ve ever tried to make salad dressing from scratch, you know that one of the biggest
challenges is getting the oil and the vinegar to mix. No matter how hard you try to shake,
stir, or whisk oil and vinegar together, they eventually separate. This happens because oil
and vinegar are made of different types of molecules that are attracted to their own kind.
Most vinegars are solutions of acetic acid and water
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(plus some other acids and alcohols, depending on the
type of vinegar you are using). Water, acetic acid, and
alcohol are all examples of polar molecules—molecules
that have a slightly negative charge at one end, or pole,
and a slightly positive charge at another end. These
slightly charged poles arise because the atoms that make
up the molecule have different electronegatives. This
means that negatively charged electrons are distributed
unevenly, and part of the molecule experiences a slightly
negative charge wile a different part of the molecule
results in a slightly positive charge. Polar molecules are
generally attracted to other polar molecules because their
slightly negative poles have an affinity for the slightly
positive poles on another molecule. Polar molecules are
attracted to polar water molecules and are hydrophilic,
The more electronegative oxygen
which means “water loving.”
in a water molecule pulls electrons
Oils are a different story. Oils are a type of fat (like
away from the two hydrogens,
butter, shortening, and lard) and are considered
creating an uneven distribution of
nonpolar. Fats and oils are composed primarily of long
charge within the molecule.
molecules called fatty acids (usually bound together by
glycerol molecules into groups of three called triglycerides). Most of the atoms in a fatty
acid molecule share electrons evenly, so they are neither negatively nor positively
charged (although fatty acids do contain small regions of polarity, just not enough to
make the whole molecule polar.)
Polar molecules are attracted to
each other and have no interest
in interacting with nonpolar
molecules, so when nonpolar
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molecules are mixed with water,
the water pushes the nonpolar
molecules out of the way and the
nonpolar molecules golm
together. You can observe this
phenomenon by placing a few
drops of oil on the surface of a
bowl of water—eventually the
The carbon (black) and hydrogen (white) in this nonpolar fatty acid
molecule share electrons evenly and are neither negatively nor
positively charged.
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drops will form a single large oil
slick. Oils repel polar molecules
such as those found in vinegar.
Because oils also repel water, they are called hydrophobic, which means “water-fearing.”
How can you bring together polar and nonpolar molecules to make something
delicious like mayonnaise (which is essentially a combination of water and oil) or salad
dressing? You need an emulsifier. Emulsifiers are the hand-holders of the molecule
world. They contain both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions and are able to attract and
“hold hands” with polar and nonpolar molecules simultaneously, pulling them together to
form a special type of mixture called an emulsion. For instance, after adding an effective
emulsifier to oil and vinegar and mixing thoroughly, separation of the oil from the vinegar
will take much longer or won’t happen at all.
In this experiment, you will test a few common household ingredients to see what
the most effective emulsifiers for making salad dressing are.
Procedure
1. Set out four clean 20-mL test tubes in a test tube rack.
2. Use a scale to measure 2 g of each of the emulsifiers you will test.
3. To three test tubes, add 2 g of an emulsifier, putting a different emulsifier in each
test tube. Label each test tube with the emulsifier that was added, and label the
empty one “control.” Enter the emulsifiers you will test into the data table.
4. Using a graduated cylinder, add 8 mL of vinegar to each test tube and swirl to fully
mix in the emulsifier.
5. Using a clean graduated cylinder, add 8 mL of oil to each test tube. Observe the oil
and vinegar layers as they avoid mixing with one another. This is what separation
looks like, a process you’ll need to be familiar with to collect data in the next step.
6. Using your thumb or a stopper, cover the opening to the control test tube, and
shake it up and down for 30 seconds (time it with a stopwatch). At the end of 30
seconds, place it back in the test tube rack and time how long it takes for the
liquids to separate with the stopwatch. Watch the sides of the glass for 1-5 minutes
for signs of separation. When you see that most of the oil has separated from the
vinegar, stop the stopwatch and record how long the process took in your data
table in the column marked “separation time.”
7. Repeat step six for each of the additional test tubes, making sure not to
contaminate one test tube with the emulsifier from another. If an emulsion has not
separated after 5 minutes, write “>5 mins.”
8. After you have mixed and observed all of the emulsifiers, go back and check to see
if any of the emulsions that didn’t separate earlier have now separated. Record any
additional observations in the data table.
Data/Observations
Emulsifier
Separation time
(min:sec)
Control
(no emulsifier)
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Observations
Analysis
1. Did the mixtures with the emulsifiers take more or less time to separate than your
control? Is this what you expected?
2. How would you expect the separation time to change if you added more emulsifier?
Why? What about if you added more oil than vinegar?
3. Lemon juice is mostly citric acid and water. Would you expect it to mix better with
olive oil or vinegar? Why?
4. Look for recipes for salad dressings or vinaigrettes online. For each, identify which
ingredient is the polar molecule (hydrophilic), which ingredient is the nonpolar
molecule (hydrophobic), and which ingredient is the emulsifier.
Conclusion
Which emulsifier would you recommend using for making salad dressing, based on your
data? Why?
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