Summary

Salt spread on roads is a common sight in regions with cold winters. This spreading
is done to let water freeze at a lower temperature and delay ice formation. When salt
dissolves in water the freezing point of the solution is lower than that of water itself.
This raises the question of which concentration is needed in H 2O(l) to make sure that
it won’t freeze at a certain temperature.

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Introduction
Experimental procedure
It’s generally known that H2O freezes and Approach
at 273K. But what happens when
liquefy NaCl(s) in H2O(l) .
We determined the concentration with
NaCl → Na +
(aq) + Cl -
(aq) a Volumetric flask. We used 3
concentrations. The first one was
It is experimentally found that Na+(aq) 2,93g of NaCl which is 0,50M. The
and Cl-(aq) ions will lower the freezing second concentration was 0,98M
point of water. But that raises a new which is equivalent to 5,88g NaCl. The
question, “Will a double concentration last concentration was 1,99M which is
of NaCl(s) result in a twice as lower 11,68g.
freeze point?” Our hypothesis is that
For each concentration we filled three
the concentration of NaCl (s) is directly
plain test tubes. We putted them in a
proportional with the temperature of
adjustable freezer element.
the freeze point. It is certain that a
liquefy with a molar concentration of
1,99 NaCl(s) in 100g of water won’t
freeze at -6 °C. This would mean that 1 Data gathering and
molar concentration of NaCl(s) in 100g analysis
water would have a freeze point of -3
°C.

Chemisty - Internet symposium - R. Ramcharan & M. Schoute

We putted the plain test tubes in the
adjustable freezer element, which set
up to 263K, 267K and 270K in three
particular experiments. We checked
every 45 minutes in which stadium the
liquefied NaCl was. There were three
options; solid, liquid and liquid crystal,
which we put in a table.
Results
We started the experiment with a
temperature of 263K this experiment
failed, because we couldn’t determine
the freezing process. It turned out that
the three liquefies were frozen within
the first check of 45 minutes.
In the second experiment the variable
freezing element was set up to 267K.
During the first check we noticed that
the test tube with the highest
concentration NaCL was still liquid.
The tube with the lowest concentration
NaCl was completely frozen.
Remarkable was that the middle
concentration was liquid crystal. After
the third check also this liquefy was
frozen
In the last experiment we set up the
temperature to 270K. by the first check
the lowest concentration was frozen
and the other tubes were unchanged.
We checked another 2 times but they
were still liquid.
Chemisty - Internet symposium - R. Ramcharan & M. Schoute
263K 267K 270K
0,5M SSS SSS SSS
0,98M SSS CCS LCC
SSS LLL LLL
1,99M
(The letters in a cell show which check it was.)
S Solid
L Liquid
C Liquid crystal
Conclusion and discussion
When we look at our experiment with
our results. We can see that it’s clear
that at 263K all NaCl(aq) freezes.
That’s exactly what we expected to
happen, because theoretically it’s not
possible to get a lower freeze point
than 267K. At the temperature of 267K
the liquid with 1,99M NaCl(aq) was still
liquid, so that’s also what we expected.
But than we had the liquid with 0,98M
NaCl(aq) which we didn’t really know
what to expect. But it turns out to be
that there is a sort of stadium between
solid and liquid. We searched on the
internet and they call it “liquid crystal”,
because it’s as liquid as a real liquid,
but it has a certain structure in his
molecules which we also see at solid
substances. We did this part of
experiment three times because we
thought that the results were a bit
doubtful. But the results of all the test
were the same. At least we had a liquid
with 0,5M NaCl(aq), which had really no
effect on the freeze point. Of course it
has an effect, but we couldn’t notice it
because of the adjustable freezer
element which was not as adjustable
as we thought it would be. In fact the
whole experiment went as we wanted it
to go. Our hypothesis was right, we
proved that there is a sort of a direct
proportional relation.
This raises another interesting inquiry
question. When you know what molar
concentration is needed, what the most
effective way in economic way is to
prevent ice on the road? Or are the
other salts which are more effective in
the way of less molar concentration?

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org
- Sodium Chloride

Chemisty - Internet symposium - R. Ramcharan & M. Schoute