LIQUIDS AND SOLIDS

The Kinetic Molecular Theory of Liquids and Solids:

*Molecules of liquids are held more strongly than those in a gas. They are closer to one another and their
motion is limited, but this is still sufficient to allow them to slide past one another. Thus, liquids flow.

*Liquids expand slightly when temperature is increased.

*The rate of diffusion is much lower than in gases.

*Molecules of solids are packed together or “locked in” which make them incompressible.

*The diffusion in solid is at a much lower rate than in liquids.

*Solids expand slightly with an increase in temperature.

Properties of Liquids:

1. Evaporation – the slow escape of molecules from the surface of the liquid to the atmosphere.
*At a given temperature, the molecules in a particular liquid do not have the same kinetic energy.
-The molecules with a higher kinetic energy overcome the intermolecular forces of attraction
and break away from the surface of the liquid and escape into the atmosphere as vapor.
*Evaporation has a cooling effect.
*Evaporation is faster during a windy day or when the weather is hot.
*The weaker the forces of attraction between the particles of the liquid, the faster is the evaporation
process.

Volatile Liquids – liquids that evaporate more rapidly

*Nonpolar molecules evaporate more rapidly than polar molecules due to the weaker molecular
attraction of nonpolar substances.

Factors Affecting the Rate of Evaporation:

a. The nature of the liquid
- ethanol evaporates more quickly than water.
b. The temperature of the liquid
-hot water evaporates more quickly than cold water
c. The surface area of the liquid
-glass of water evaporates more quickly than water in a bottle

2. Vapor Pressure – the pressure exerted by the gas of that substance when it is in equilibrium with the liquid.
*Vapor pressure increases as temperature increases.
-the average kinetic energy of the molecules increases when the temperature increases.
3. Boiling Point – the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure of the
surrounding atmosphere.
Boiling – the process at which bubbles of vapor begin to appear after sometime throughout the liquid.

*The boiling point of a liquid varies with atmospheric pressure.

*The normal boiling point is measured at standard atmospheric pressure.
*Boiling point is a function of pressure.

4. Surface Tension – property of a liquid that tends to draw the surface molecules into the body of the liquid and
 reduces the surface to a minimum; due to the unbalanced forces acting on the surface molecules, the effect
is a membrane-like film coating on the surface of the liquid.

Surfactants or Surface-active agents – substances that reduce the surface tension of water.

*Attractive forces are equal in all directions inside the body of the liquid where a given molecule is
completely surrounded by other molecules, thus, they counteract one another, and no net balanced
force remains in the molecule.

*On the surface of the liquid, a molecule is not completely surrounded by nearby molecules. The
region above such a surface molecule is relatively vacant. Such a molecule is attracted by its
neighbors on the surface and by the molecules below it. This results in a net unbalanced attractive
force directed into the interior of the liquid. The effect is that the surface molecules form an encasing
film on the liquid which is relatively quite tough.

5. Capillary Action – the rise or depression of the surface of a liquid inside a small-diameter tube penetrating the
surface.

Forces of Cohesion – attractive forces between the molecules of a liquid

Forces of Adhesion – attractive forces between the molecules of the liquid and the molecules of its
container.

*If the forces of adhesion are greater than the forces of cohesion, the liquid will wet the
container. The reverse, the liquid will draw away from the container and will not wet it.

*The amount of change in the level of the liquid in the tube is directly proportional to the
surface tension of the liquid.

CRITICAL TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE

*Boiling occurs only when the liquid is in an open container, it does not occur in a closed container.

Critical Temperature – the highest temperature at which a gas may be changed into a liquid by
increasing its pressure.

Critical Pressure – the pressure that is applied to change the gas into the liquid state.

*A gas cannot be liquefied above its critical temperature because the molecules have enough kinetic energy to
overcome the attractive forces that would cause liquefaction.

Critical Temperatures and Pressures of Some Substances

Substance Critical Temperature (K) Critical Pressure (atm)
H2O 647 218
SO2 430 78
NH3 406 112
He 5 2
H2 33 13
O2 154 50
CH4 191 46
CO2 304 73
N2 126 34

*A high critical temperature indicates strong attractive forces.

*A low critical temperature indicates weak attractive forces.
 Types of Solids

1. Vitreous or Amorphous Solids (shapeless solids)

-solids that do not have definite melting points
ex: gum, paraffin and glass
*the particles do not have an orderly arrangement; their arrangement is random, similar to that of in liquids.

2. Crystalline solids
-solids that have definite melting points
ex: sodium chloride, sugar
*crystals have an orderly arrangement of particles giving them a recognizable external shape.

Crystallography – the study of the geometric forms of crystals

Max von Laue (1912) – experimentally verified the arrangement of atoms in crystals using X-ray
patterns.
William Henry Bragg and William Laurence Bragg (1913) – computed the spacing between layers
of atoms by measuring the intensities of X-rays reflected from crystals at different angles.

Geometric Forms of Solids:

1. Cubic – all axes are of the same length and all angles are 900
2. Tetragonal – two axes are of the same length and all angles are 900
3. Orthorhombic – no axes are of the same length and all angles are 900
4. Monoclinic – no axes are of the same length and two angles are 900
5. Triclinic – no axes are of the same length, no angles are the same and no angle is 900
6. Hexagonal – two axes are of the same length, two angles are 900, and one angle is 1200
7. Rhombohedral – all axes are of the same length and all angles are equal but not 900

Allotropes – crystalline solids that exist in various forms

Ex: carbon – diamond and graphite

Bonding in Solids
*The type of attractive forces between particles of a solid are covalent, ionic, metallic, and van der Waals

Properties of Solids Based on the Type of Bonding

Covalent Ionic Metallic Molecular

Particles that Atoms Positive and negative Metal atoms Molecules

occupy the lattice ions
sites

Electrical attraction
Nature of bonding Electron Sharing Electrostatic between the outer
attraction level electron and the Van der Waals
nuclei Forces

They are hard, They are quite hard They have variable They are generally
nonvolatile, and have and brittle. They melting points and soft and have low
high melting point. have fairly high hardness. They are melting points. They
Properties They are good melting points and good conductors of are good insulators
insulators are good insulators. electricity.
 Diamond, Sodium chloride, Copper Ice
Examples carborundum, quartz potassium nitrate, Iron Dry ice
sodium sulfate aluminum Sucrose
iodine

Changes of Phase

Molar Heat of Fusion DHf – the amount of heat that is absorbed by one mole of a solid as it melts
into a liquid at constant temperature

Melting Point – the temperature at which the solid is changed into a liquid.
*The solid phase of the substance and its liquid phase are in dynamic equilibrium.
*The rate of melting of the solid is equal to the rate of freezing of the liquid
ex: The weights of ice and water at melting point will remain unchanged.
*The melting point of any solid is the freezing point of its liquid form.

Freezing Point – the temperature at which a liquid is changed into solid

*The solid and the liquid phases are in dynamic equilibrium
*The melting point and the freezing point coincides
ex: the freezing point of water and the melting point of ice are both 00C

**The latent heat of fusion is needed to overcome the cohesive forces between the solid particles in
order to separate them into a more random arrangement in the liquid phase.

Heat of Vaporization DHv – the amount of heat that is absorbed by a liquid at its boiling point to change it into
vapor at the same temperature

**The heat of vaporization is needed to separate the molecules in the liquid phase into individual
molecules in the gaseous phase

***The abnormally high heat of vaporization of water (40.79 kJ/mol), explains why steam causes
severe burns when the steam condenses on the skin.

***When water condenses, 40.79kJ/mol of energy is released into the surroundings, this amount of
energy helps moderate the temperature on earth. Without such energy transfer, some land surfaces on
earth would be uncomfortably hot or uncomfortably cold.

Applications:

Tubs of water are placed near vegetables or plants in the temperate areas to prevent them from freezing. The
freezing of water releases heat of fusion to the surrounding, which prevents the temperature from becoming too
low.