oil-water interface
- noun
- Specialized
:
interfaz aceite-agua
- Scientists studied the behavior of surfactants at the oil-water interface to improve cleaning products.
Examples
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Emulsifiers help to stabilize the oil-water interface in salad dressings.
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Tiny droplets formed a visible oil-water interface in the laboratory experiment.
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The oil-water interface is crucial for understanding emulsions.
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Can you explain the oil-water interface phenomenon?
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Emulsifiers help to stabilize the oil-water interface in salad dressings.
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Scientists studied the behavior of surfactants at the oil-water interface to improve cleaning products.
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Tiny droplets formed a visible oil-water interface in the laboratory experiment.
Synonyms
34
5.1
A place where two areas or groups meet and interact
Surface Forms
Morphology
oil-water + interface
The meaning is directly compositional: 'oil' + 'water' designates the two substances and 'interface' denotes their boundary, so a learner who knows those words can infer it is the contact surface between oil and water. This hyphenated noun phrase follows regular noun-noun composition and is cross-linguistically transparent, though it may appear in technical contexts.
Etymology
Oil-water interface comes from the simple image of oil sitting on top of water, since the two liquids do not mix and form a clear surface where they meet. That visible area is the 'boundary' between them, so the term means the place where oil and water come into contact.