dan hendricks wrote:
>
> Hi, Listers.  Can't an analogy be made between absorption of
> substances by wax and adsorption of odors and tastes by activated
> charcoal? ......  Wouldn't it be more
> likely actually to clean the honey, just like charcoal does?

Activated charcoal usually has the material pass through it to remove
the contaminant. The mechanism is, as you note, adsorption which is like
moisture forming on your mirror- a surface mechanism.

Absorption is what is happening with the contaminates and wax, as Barry
noted. The material goes into solution and is homogeneous. You will get
a transition zone at the honey/wax interface where the solubility of the
contaminant in either will determine what and how much migrates between
them. If the contaminant is at all soluble in honey, it will migrate
from the wax to the honey and vice versa until it arrives at steady
state.

If the contaminant is not soluble in honey, the contaminant can still be
in the honey but as a mixture and in suspension, brought there by the
bees. It is neither absorbed nor adsorbed. So if it does come in contact
with the wax, there can be absorption by the wax, the amount depends on
the conditions at the interface and how soluble the contaminant is. But
only at the interface, so all the rest of the contaminates will stay
suspended in the honey/contaminant mixture. There may be some cleaning,
but when you look at the total volume of honey compared to what comes in
contact with the cell walls, there would be little.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, ME