Question

Will sand dissolve in ethanol?

Answer 1

Sand is of mainly two types. They are silica sand and white sand. Both these sands have the chemical variety of silicon dioxides. Whereas the most common form of silicon dioxide is quartz, which is a hard mineral which will not dissolve in any polar or non-polar solvents. Thus, sand will not dissolve in ethanol.

Complete answer:
Sand consists of small particles. Though the sand looks the same, there were different types of sands. They are silica sand which is also known as quart sand and another type of sand is white sand or industrial sand. These two sands mainly consist of chemical elements oxygen and silica. These elements oxygen and silica exist as silicon dioxide.
In this silicon dioxide each oxygen atom is bonded to other two oxygen atoms and involved in a tetrahedral structure. This tetrahedral structure has a cross linked high molecular weight structure and it is very difficult to break these bonds.
Any type of solvent whether polar solvents like water and ethanol or non-polar solvent like benzene or kerosene are also not able to dissolve the sand due to the strong silicon oxygen bonds in silicon dioxide.
Thus, sand will not dissolve in ethanol.

Note:
Like dissolves in like nature. Polar solutes like sodium chloride dissolves in polar solvents like water and non-polar compounds or nonpolar salts dissolves in non-polar solvents like kerosene or benzene. But, due to the high cross linked and giant structure of silicon dioxide in sand makes it undissolved in any solvent.