Science advances: it's common sense that oil doesn't dissolve in water, but scientists want to subvert it

It is well known that oil and water are immiscible, but a new discovery may overturn this common sense Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have created a high-pressure condition and found for the first time that drainage methane can also be dissolved in water Similar methods may be able to dissolve other hydrophobic molecules with water, and develop a variety of cheap and environmentally friendly new chemical solvents In the study, published in the latest issue of science advances, scientists have simulated high pressures on the deep sea floor and on the interior of planets such as Uranus and Neptune, which are applied to tiny containers filled with water and methane They are filled with methane and water molecules between two super sharp diamonds By constantly squeezing the two diamond drilling points, they have obtained 20000 standard atmospheric pressures, which is more than 20 times higher than the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean in the world Under 20000 standard atmospheric pressure, methane is completely soluble in water (source: Science Advanced) The researchers observed with a microscope that under normal pressure, methane is more like an oil droplet floating in water, methane and water are not soluble, but under 20000 standard atmospheric pressure, the floating oil droplets disappear, methane is completely soluble in water They explained that as the pressure gradually increased, the methane molecules continued to contract, while the size of the water molecules remained unchanged When the size of the compressed methane molecules was appropriate, it was just "embedded" between the water molecules and "dissolved" together Methane is often used in the laboratory to study the characteristics of drainage oil molecules The discovery that methane can be dissolved in water means that other hydrophobic molecules can also be dissolved in water under high pressure like methane Further study on the interaction between methane and water under high pressure, as well as the physical and chemical properties of Methane Dissolved in water, will help researchers to find new chemical solvents to replace the existing expensive and harmful solvent components Researchers, because the high-pressure conditions created by the experiment are very similar to the deep sea bottom and space system, can use this to build a new model to study the behavior of hydrophobic substances such as methane in the underwater world, as well as simulate different stars such as Saturn and Neptune, and study the life-related chemicals and their interactions in these stars Paper link: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/8/e1700240