How Many Types of Solutions are There

Edited By Team Careers360 | Updated on May 30, 2023 09:28 AM IST

Introduction

A homogeneous mixture of two or more substances, whose relative amounts may be changed within certain limits, is called a solution. The solution is a wide term and includes the homogeneous mixture of the substance existing in any physical state. Thus, we can have solid-solid liquid-liquid, gas-gas, solid-liquid, etc., types of solutions.

The substances which homogeneously mix up together to form a solution are called components of the solution. The solutions consisting of two components are called binary solutions. Similarly, solutions consisting of three and four components are referred to as ternary and quaternary solutions respectively. A solution retains the properties of its components for example a solution of sugar in water shows the properties of both sugar and water.

When two substances form a solution, one substance is said to dissolve in the other. These terms are not very well defined. The substance which gets dissolved is commonly known as a solute and the medium in which it gets dissolved is termed as solvent. Technically the component present in excess and whose physical state is the same as that of the Solution is referred to as the solvent. The Other component present in the smaller amount is termed as solute. For example, when a small amount of sugar (solid) is dissolved in excess of water (solvent), the solution formed has the same physical state (liquid) as that of water.

Therefore in the case of a sugar-water solution, water is solvent while sugar is solute. When both the components have the same physical state as that of the resulting solution, the component present in excess is referred to as the solvent.

Types of Solutions

Any state of matter (solid, liquid or gas) can act both as a solvent and as a solvent and as a solute during the formation of a solution. Therefore, depending on the physical states of a solute and solvent, we can have nine different types of solutions. They are summarized below:

S.No.	Type of solution	Solute	Solvent	Examples
1.	Solid-solid	Solid	Solid	Alloys like brass, bronze, etc.
2.	Solid-liquid	Solid	Liquid	Solutions of sugar, salt, urea etc., in water
3.	Solid-gas	Solid	Gas	Sublimation of substances like iodine, camphor, etc., into the air.
4.	Liquid-solid	Liquid	Solid	Hydrated salt, mercury in amalgamated zinc, etc.
5.	Liquid-liquid	Liquid	Liquid	Alcohol in water, benzene in toluene.
6.	Liquid-gas	Liquid	Gas	Aerosols, water vapour in air.
7.	Gas-solid	Gas	Solid	Hydrogen absorbed in palladium.
8.	Gas-liquid	Gas	Liquid	Aerated drinks.
9.	Gas-gas	Gas	Gas	Mixture of gasses, air.