Selective solvation can be crucial in phase separation in polar binary mixtures (water–oil)
with a small amount of hydrophilic ions or hydrophobic particles. They are preferentially
attracted to one of the solvent components, leading to a number of intriguing effects coupled
to phase separation. For example, if cations and anions interact differently with the two
components, an electric double layer emerges at a liquid–liquid interface. The main aim of
this paper is to show that a strongly hydrophilic (hydrophobic) solute induces precipitation of …