Name: Bautista, Monica Lea S. Instructor: Mr.

Enzo Delos Reyes

Buensuceso, Maryluz O. Date Performed: March 1, 2018
Section: 3 ChE-B Date Submitted: March 8, 2018
Group: 1

Experiment No. 3
DETERMINATION OF THE MOLECULAR WEIGHT OF A NON-VOLATILE
SOLID BY THE CRYOSCOPIC METHOD

Treatment of Results
30

25
Temperature (degC)

20

15
Trial 1
10 Trial 2

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time (s)

Fig. 1 Plot of temperature vs. time of pure glacial acetic acid

30

25
Temperature (degC)

20

15
Trial 1
10 Trial 2

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time (s)

Fig. 2 Plot of temperature vs. time of glacial acetic acid with benzoic acid
 30

25
Temperature (degC)

20

15
Trial 1
10 Trial 2

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Time (s)

Fig. 3 Plot of temperature vs. time of glacial acetic acid with unknown solute

Discussion Points

1. How would you determine the freezing point of a substance based on the plot of
temperature vs time?

The experimental freezing point of a substance was determined based on temperature

that remains stable for the longest period of time for all the trials. This was concluded
such that for this period the temperature do not change until all the solid has melt as heat
of fusion is taken up to convert it to liquid state.

2. How does the freezing point of pure acetic acid (solvent) compare with its
freezing point after a certain amount of solute is dissolved in it?

The freezing point of pure acetic solvent became lower when benzoic acid was added
which can be observed as the freezing point depression. The freezing point is the
temperature at which the vapor pressures of liquid solvent and solid solvent are equal.
When a non-volatile solid, which in this case was the benzoic acid, is added to a volatile
liquid solvent, the solution vapor pressure will be lower than that of the pure solvent. As a
result the solid will reach equilibrium with the solution at a lower temperature than with
the pure solvent. In freezing point depression, the change in the solvent properties is
dependent on the concentration, not the identity, of the solute particles.
3. How would the calculated molecular weight of the unknown solute be affected
by the amount of acetic acid used?

The calculated molecular weight of the unknown solute will not be affected by the
amount or volume of acetic acid used since the change in temperature or the lowering of
the freezing point of the resulting solution will also be affected thus cancelling the effect
of the increasing or decreasing of the amount of the solvent.

4. Define supercooling.

Supercooling is the process of chilling a liquid below its freezing point, without it
becoming solid. A liquid below its freezing point will crystallize in the presence of a seed
crystal or nucleus around which a crystal structure can form. Supercooling is often
confused with freezing-point depression when in reality it is the cooling of a liquid below
its freezing point without it becoming solid while freezing point depression is when a
solution can be cooled below the freezing point of the corresponding pure liquid due to the
presence of the solute. In this experiment only freezing point happened since a solute is
added in a pure solvent which caused the lowering of its temperature. Supercooling
requires being impurity and imperfections free which is in opposite of the freezing point
depression.

References:

[1] Colligative Properties.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-chemistry/chapter/colligative-properties-of-
nonelectrolyte-solutions/ Date retrieved: March 7, 2018
[2] Supercooling. https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/supercooling.htm Date retrieved:
March 7, 2018
[3] Determination of Molecular Weight by Cryoscopy.
http://1chemistry.blogspot.com/2011/12/determining-molecule-weight-by-freezing.html
Date retrieved: March 6, 2018