How does nail polish remover work?

i need the information for a science fair prodject, but i can't find it on the web. help please?How does nail polish remover work?
I have no idea why you gave Freddy a thumbs down - maybe because the answer was hard to read?? - but the answer was essentially correct.





Nail polish remover (ethyl acetate and acetone) is just a solvent and dissolves the polymer that is nail polish.How does nail polish remover work?
Here's the


beuaty of the entire thing- there is no chemical reaction. The nail


polish remover is just the organic solvent that is used as an


ingredient in the nail polish. That is, ingredient #1 above is sold as


a ';pure'; material (meaning that ingredients 2 and 3 are not present,


but that does not mean that other chemicals are not present to save


costs). The hardened nail polish is dissolved by the nail polish


remover (basically putting it back into the form that it was in when


applied to a nail). For dissolution to occur, no chemical reaction


takes place. However, what is necesary is that the solvent likes the


polymer. There is a rule of thumb that may be a bit oversimplified,


but it works, and that is ';like dissolves like.'; And in this case, it


can really be oversimplified and said that the organic polymer that is


the hardened polish on a nail can be dissolved by an organic solvent


(by no means an exact rule, but it usually gives one a good starting


point). So if a solvent likes the polymer, as is the case for nail


polish and nail polish remover, the solvent molecules (which may be


ethyl acetate or acetone, two organic solvents) get in between the


polymer chains and ';push'; them apart. There are so many of the solvent


molecules pushing the polymer chains apart that eventually the polymer


chains do not know that other polymer chains exist and you get a


solution. This solution can then be wiped off with a cotton ball or


tissue when nail polish is dissolved by nail polish remover. Next time


you remove nail polish (or see someone remove nail polish), look at


the cotton ball or tissue, eventually the solvent will evaporate


(similar to the drying process as to when one is painting their nails)


and leave a hardened residue on the cotton ball. This


dissolving/evaporating process is endless (for the most part) so that


if you can collect the dissolved nail polish, you could use it over


and over as long as you have a solvent.';





:o)