Mixtures – Types of Mixture

When you study chemistry, Mixtures is one of the most basic terms taught in class 9th and 11th. When two or more different substances are mixed without taking part in the chemical change, the substance that forms is a mixture. Further, the mixture is classified into two different types. These include Homogeneous mixtures and Heterogeneous mixtures. Each of these has different properties that we are going to discuss today.

This article talks about types of mixtures with examples. You will find brief information on the concept of mixtures in chemistry, a thorough explanation of types of mixtures with examples, differences between two types, and so on.  

Concept of Mixtures

In chemistry, the mixture is a fundamental term described as when two or more two different compounds or elements are mixed without any chemical change. The substance which is formed during this procedure is termed the mixture. It is not necessarily necessary to mix in a definite ratio to form a specific mixture when mixing substances. Some of the common examples of the mixture include sugar and salt, water and sand, lime juice and water, etc. 

Types of mixtures

Mixtures can be classified into two parts: Homogeneous mixtures and Heterogeneous mixtures. Let’s discuss each of these in detail – 

Homogeneous mixtures

Homogeneous mixtures can be described as a mixture where the substances mixed are distributed uniformly throughout the mixture. In simple terms, a homogeneous mixture is a solid, gaseous, and liquid mixture which are uniform in composition throughout time. In this mixture, only a single phase of matter is observed. 

Homogeneous mixtures are the most common examples of sugar water, rainwater, air, vinegar, vodka, dishwashing detergent, a cup of coffee, steel, detergent, mouthwash, jello gelatin, collagen, and so on.

Further, the homogeneous mixtures are divided into three different types. These can be classified as:

• Suspensions

Have you ever thought about why a painter painting a picture always mixes two or more two colours? This happens because the paint is almost like suspension. The size of the particles is greater than 5 x 10-7 m, which means that particles are easily visible through the naked eyes. Another common example of suspension is sand and water. After some time, these particles either float or settle down completely and need to be mixed again to restore the suspension state. 

• Solutions

A common example of a solution is dissolving salt with water. The size of these particles is less than 2 x 10-9 m, which means these are so small that they are not visible through naked eyes. Also, it’s hard to differentiate between the thing being dissolved called the solute and the thing that dissolves the solute called the solvent. 

• Colloids

Colloids stand between the suspensions and solutions whose particle size can be between 2 x 10-9 m to 5 x 10-7 m. The intermolecular forces are extremely strong to resist the nature of settling or floating of the particles.

Further, the colloids are divided into several parts owing to their medium of depression (liquid, soil, and gas).

Heterogeneous mixtures

Heterogeneous mixtures are the second and the last type of mixtures in which different substances or components are mixed whose particles are visible under the microscope. Its components can be easily identified through the naked eye. 

Here are some critical points regarding Heterogeneous mixtures:

• In the Heterogeneous mixtures, the particles are not distributed uniformly. 

• The Heterogeneous mixture is easily visible through the naked eyes. 

• A heterogeneous mixture offers a non-uniform composition. 

• The common examples of Heterogeneous mixtures are pizza, sweaters, and so on. 

Difference between Homogeneous mixtures and Heterogeneous mixtures

Here’s a quick difference between Homogeneous mixtures and Heterogeneous mixtures in a tabular form. Let’s have a look:

Conclusion

With this, we come to an end to types of mixtures. When you study chemistry, Mixtures is one of the most basic terms taught in class 9th and 11th. When two or more different compounds or elements are mixed without any chemical change. The substance which is formed during this procedure is termed a mixture. Mixtures are of two types; homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures discussed in this article.

In this article describing mixtures, we studied the concept of the mixture in length. We covered several other topics, such as a thorough explanation of mixtures, differences between two types, and other related topics. We hope this study material must have helped you better understand the types of mixtures.