Soda makers use heavy oil to keep flavors from floating
To prevent essential oils from rising to the top of a bottle, chemists use bromine atoms to create a liquid that is physically heavier than water.
The next time you open a citrus-flavored soda, look for a cloudy, uniform glow rather than an oily ring around the neck of the bottle. This visual consistency is achieved through a clever bit of molecular manipulation involving brominated vegetable oil. Because citrus oils are naturally less dense than water, they would normally float to the surface like salad dressing. To solve this, chemists bond heavy bromine atoms to soybean or corn oil, creating a substance with a specific gravity significantly higher than the sugary water surrounding it.
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