CoreChem:Miscibility
From ChemPRIME
When a solid dissolves in a liquid, we very seldom find that the liquid has any tendency to dissolve in the solid. In a saturated solution of potassium chloride, for example, essentially no water dissolves in the potassium chloride crystals. With liquids the situation is usually different. If equal quantities of 1-butanol and water are shaken together, the mixture slowly separates into two layers. The bottom layer is a saturated solution of 1-butanol in water—it contains about 8% 1-butanol by weight. The top layer is not pure 1-butanol but a saturated solution of water in 1-butanol. It contains about 32% water by weight. A pair of liquids, like 1-butanol and water, which separates into two layers is said to be partially miscible.
By contrast with the solubilities of solids in liquids, a great many liquid pairs are completely miscible. That is, regardless of the proportions in which the two liquids are mixed, each will dissolve completely in the other. There will be no phase boundary as in the case of partially miscible liquids like 1-butanol and water. Ethanol and water provide a good example of two liquids which are completely miscible. If you have a source of pure ethanol, it is possible to mix a drink in any proportions you like-even up to 200 proof—without forming two separate liquid phases.
