What is partition coefficient?
It is the ratio of concentration of solute in two immiscible solvents.
water and octane forms two separate layers and used as two immiscible solvents for extraction and purification of compounds.
So we can say that their partition coefficient in each other is zero.
Not that I know really, but surely the partition coefficient for water must be zero, by definition...?
Yea, that's what I could expect. Apparently there is a study, mentioned above in this thread, which measures Part.Coeff. of n-octane in water at different temperatures. Thermodynamically mixing would never happened, however kinetically(including fluctuations) it's still possible:
" The mole fraction aqueous solubility varies between (1.13–
1.60) · 10^(-7) for n-octane ...
"
The number is small, but it's not zero. Does complementarity work in this case? Is solubility(or part.coeff.) of water in n-octane is equal to solubility of n-octane in water?