In the classroom, I often see alcohol wipes being used to erase both water based and oil based markers. But here’s the question, how does a single-molecule substance like alcohol dissolve both water-based and oil-based solutes when most liquids can only dissolve one of the two?
In: Chemistry
There are three things that make alcohol a good cleaner:
* It’s a small molecule, it can get in and under the big complex shaped molecules in colored things.
* The alcohol end is **just like water!** So it does good at cleaning the things water can. Like white glue and wet erase markers.
* Thee other end is a lot like a small **soap**, and so it can clean a lot of those things too. Like paint markers and peanut butter stains.
{edit to add) The paper in the wipes also helps rub things off, but that’s not special about alcohol, it’s just scrubbing.
Bonus question: How are alcohols different from soaps?A soap is a “salt” of oil, and alcohol replaces the salt end with a water end. That’s why it’s different from soap. And why they sometimes clean different things.
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