What other clear liquids have the same oil/water effect.?

Question

I'm an artist and am interested in the effect of water based paints poured into pools of turpentine. I use a syring to inject pools of water based colour into pools of turpentine (and vice versa).However the drying process eliminates the beauty of the effect and I would like to use alternatives that would hold the "lava lamp" look...something which doesn't evaporate but which is clear and more dense than water and turps.

Answer 1

Try experimenting with different types of oils.
The oil/water effect is due to the different densities of the oil and water. So if you try using different types of oils, you should be able to get the desired eefect.

Answer 2

The removal of volatile compounds through weathering of crude oil results in the release of low boiling point aromatic and saturated hydrocarbons. It has been thought that those components hold the greatest toxicity to marine life (Capuzzo 1987; Galt et al. 1991; Payne et al. 1991; Venkateswaran et al. 1995). Although biodegradation of crude oil can be considered a component of the weathering process, the process continues well after initial weathering and the elimination of volatile compounds has occurred. Known results of this continued microbial degradation include a measurable decrease in sediment crude oil along with a measurable organic enrichment in those sediments (Spies 1987).

As petroleum-degrading microbes are well suited to metabolizing hydrocarbons of weathered oil, enhancing such microbial biodegradation has successfully been used as an effective means of cleansing oiled sites (Mueller et al. 1992; Bragg et al. 1994). Fertilizers were employed after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 to augment the growth of microbial beach populations. Not only was there an enhanced reduction in deposited oil from the fertilized plots, there was also an enhanced loss of extractable organic matter from the remaining weathered oil (Claxton et al. 1991). Recently, studies (including our laboratory) have demonstrated that a by-product(s) of microbial degradation of artificially weathered Alaska North Slope crude oil is a ten fold increase in neutral water soluble hydrocarbons that exhibits significantly high toxicity to developing atherinid and clupeoid fish embryos (Middaugh et al. 1996, 1998). Biodegradation of crude oil occurs in regions of natural seepage (e.g. Coal Oil Point) as well as in regions of oil production and transport where elevated populations of crude oil-degrading microbes are purported to exist (Spies 1987). It can be assumed that the process of oil biodegradation at these sites is an ongoing process and that the products of that biodegradation are chronically present. The fact that the biodegradation of crude oil is now known to produce water soluble fractions that may be toxic to marine life, means there are profound implications to the biota in the Santa Barbara Channel near sites of natural oil seeps and non-catastrophic release (associated with oil production or transport). In particular, we have been interested in how select species of marine organisms tolerate chronic exposure to microbially degraded oil constituents.

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Answer 3

Maybe mineral oil instead of turpentine?

Answer 4

may be you must try alcohols + glycols ,, have you try antifreeze liquid used for cars radiator,, you can mix that with some spirit and try it

Answer 5

baby oil ,vegetable oil