mother liquor

American  

noun

1. the portion of a solution remaining after crystallization of its important component.

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Etymology

Origin of mother liquor

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

The crystals were mounted and sealed in capillaries in the mother liquor or covered in Paratone, measured at room temperature and at 100 K and crystals of various sizes were used.

From Nature • Mar. 28, 2017

This is discussed above with reference to the instability of the crystals outside the mother liquor.

From Nature • Mar. 28, 2017

A crystal in its mother liquor grows by attracting new particles and depositing them upon its outer surface, according to the kind of crystallisation peculiar to the material of which it is composed.

From The Biological Problem of To-day Preformation Or Epigenesis? The Basis of a Theory of Organic Development by Hertwig, Oscar

On cooling, p-nitrobenzyl cyanide crystallizes; the mother liquor, on distillation, gives an impure alcohol which can be used for the next run.

From Organic Syntheses by Conant, James Bryant

When such water evaporates, it becomes concentrated, along with the magnesium and potassium salts, in the "mother liquor"; and upon complete evaporation, it crystallizes out as boracite and other rarer minerals.

From The Economic Aspect of Geology by Leith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)