DISCUSSION

Freezing point depression is a colligative property of solution that primarily occurs when
the freezing point of a liquid is lowered by adding another compound (solute), in which the
solution’s freezing point will be lower than that of its pure solvent. It tends the molecules to slow
down due to the decrease in temperature gradient thus arranging the intermolecular forces to
arrange themselves and forms solid or crystalline structure. Acording to Raoult’s law, this leads
to a decrease in vapor pressure in response to lowering temperature change at which the vapor
pressures of the liquid and frozen forms of the solution will be equal.
In this experiment, the freezing point of a pure solvent and solutions containing an amount of
unknown solute and acetic acid were to determine and correlates the molar mass of an
unknown solute based on its freezing point depression relationship.
As the experiment progresses, data obtain shows a graphical representation of cooling curves
showing temperature change over time elapsed as the liquid (solution) is cooled in constant-
temperature water bath until it solidifies. The cooling rate is likely to be determined by
temperature difference between the liquid (acetic acid and unknown substance solution) and
bath, it become evident on the cooling curve to have a gradual steep slope when the
temperature decreases. Occasionally, the observed freezing does not begin immediately at the
freezing point rather it is super cooling. It is evident on graph as it signifies from the sudden,
small rise in temperature after the supercooling “dip” in the cooling curve.

Cooling Curve for

Pure Solvent
16.5
16.4
16.3
Temperature, °C

16.2
16.1
16
15.9
15.8
15.7
15.6
15.5
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Time (seconds)

Figure__. Cooling curve for pure solvent.

Figure __. shows a steady decrease in temperature and a sudden dip followed
by a rapid rise in the temperature on pure acetic acid solvent. The rapid dip signifies the
cooling curves for pure liquids differ from those for solutions.
 Cooling Curve for
Soluti on I
18
16
14
Temperature, °C

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Time (seconds)

Figure ___. Cooling Curve for solution I (HOAc + Sample 1)

Cooling Curve for

Soluti on II
18
16
14
Temperature, °C

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Time (seconds)

Figure ___. Cooling Curve for solution II (HOAc + Sample 2)

For Figure __ and ___, it shows the supercooling dips on both graphs followed by a
short plateau in the temperature at the freezing points of the solutions with varying
unknown substance corresponding to slight difference on lowering of their temperature
at around 13.00 °C on figure__ and 11.40 °C on figure__.
 Temperature Mesurements
17
16.5
16
15.5
Temperature, °C

15
14.5
14
13.5
13
12.5
12
11.5
11
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Time (seconds)
Pure Solvent Solution I Solution II
Figure__. Temperature measurements of Pure Solvent (Acetic Acid only), Solution I (HOAc +
Sample 1), and Solution II (HOAc + Sample 2)

The figure shows the trend lines of the three data points which corresponds to
temperature of the cooling of the liquid and a trend line through the data points of time it
take to the freezing of the liquid. According to the figure, HOAc + Sample 2 has the
lowest freezing point with 11.40 ℃ followed by HOAc + Sample 1 with 13.00 ℃ as its
freezing point. According to the figure the pure solvent garnered 15.80 (℃), the highest
freezing point among the three.

It is necessary to measure the measure the freezing point of the pure acetic acid because pure
solvent has been tested and gotten its corresponding temperatures when subjected to an ice
bath in order to make sure that the solvent being used is pure and not contaminated and free
from impurities. It is important to note that stirring the solution is a vital part in this experiment
because it can avoid delocalized cold and hot spots to equilibrate the acetic acid solution.
Moreover, the solvent must freeze rapidly enough to produce heat (heat of fusion) at the rate at
which heat is lost to the bath, and the stirring must be rapid and thorough enough to keep the
temperature uniform throughout the sample.