How to Make a Liquid Into a Solid

You can make a liquid into a solid in various ways. The method you employ largely depends on what kind of liquid you have and what kind of solid you want to get. For instance, there's a significant difference between a pure liquid (such as water) and a solution (such as saltwater). The physical properties of the liquid generally limit the methods you can use to solidify it.

Instructions

1. Pour the liquid into a non-reactive container and store it in a freezer. This approach only works if the melting point of the liquid is higher than the temperature of the freezer. You can freeze pure water this way, of course, as well as many other water-based liquids.

2. Add a solidifying agent. If the freezer doesn't work, you can add a substance such as gelatin to some liquids to solidify them.

3. Boil or otherwise evaporate the liquid to leave behind any substances that were dissolved in the water. For some solutions, evaporation of the liquid eventually causes the precipitation of certain solids that were suspended in the liquid.

4. React the liquid with a chemical to form a solid precipitate. You need a little knowledge of chemistry to do this safely.

Tips & Warnings

• You may be able to turn a liquid into a solid using some, all or none of the steps above; it depends entirely on the chemical characteristics of the liquid. You can turn certain water-based solutions into solids using all of the steps above, but you may be unable to do any of the above with other liquids.

• Arguably, Steps 3 and 4 aren't really methods of turning a liquid into a solid, since changes in chemical structure are taking place.

• For all of the steps above, make sure you know what you're dealing with. Chemical reactions can have lethal results if you don't know what you're doing.