Colligative properties of solutions

When a solute dissolves in a solvent, many of the physical properties of the solvent are
changed. The vapour pressure, melting temperature and boiling temperature are three
colligative properties, which means that they are dependent on the presence of the dissolved
particles, but not on their identity.

For example, dissolving 1 mole of sodium chloride in a litre of water has the same effect
upon the colligative properties as dissolving 1 mole of potassium chloride.

Example:
Liquid or Concentration Vapour Melting Boiling point
solution of solute pressure @ point (°C) (°C)
particles (mol L- 20°C (kPa)
1
)

Pure water --- 2.34 0.0 100.0

1.0 mol L-1 1.0 2.30 -1.9 100.5

glucose

1.0 mol L-1 2.0 2.26 -3.7 101.0

NaCl

1.0 mol L-1 3.0 2.22 -5.6 101.5

MgCl2

Effect on Vapour Pressure

The vapour pressure of a liquid is due to the high energy particles being able to escape the
liquid phase as gas particles. These gas particles produce pressure above the liquid, which is
called the vapour pressure.

When non-volatile solute particles are added to the liquid, they take up space at the surface
of the liquid, inhibiting the escape of solvent particles. This lowers the vapour pressure of the
solution relative to the pure solvent. You can think about the presence of the solute particles
as effectively diluting the solvent.

solution
pure solvent
Effect on Boiling Point

The presence of solute particles increases the boiling point of the solvent.

The boiling point of a liquid can be defined as the temperature at which the vapour pressure
of the liquid reaches atmospheric pressure. At this temperature, the vapour pressure of the
liquid is sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure and allow bubbles of vapour to form
inside the bulk of the liquid.

It follows, that as the vapour pressure is lowered when a non-volatile solvent is added, a
higher temperature will be required to increase the vapour pressure of the solution to equal
atmospheric pressure. This means that the boiling point of the solution is higher than the
boiling point of the pure solvent.

On the diagram to the left, the vapour pressure

of the solution is always less than the vapour
pressure of the pure solvent at the same
temperature. Therefore, the solution needs to be
heated to a higher temperature in order for its
vapour pressure to become equal to the
atmospheric pressure.

Effect on Melting Temperature

The presence of solute particles lowers the freezing/melting temperature of a liquid.

Freezing involves particles in the liquid state coming together to form a crystal lattice. The
presence of solute particles interferes with this crystallisation process. This requires the
temperature of the solution to be lowered further than for the pure solvent.
Questions to try:

1. Does salt water boil at a higher or lower temperature compared to pure water?
Explain your answer.

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2. Which of the following has the lowest boiling point?

a. 2 molL-1 NaCl

b. 1 molL-1 Na2SO4

c. 1 molL-1 glucose

d. 2 molL-1 BaCl2

3. Which of the following liquids would you expect to have the highest boiling point?

Explain your answer.

Liquid A: Ethanol (CH3CH2OH)

Liquid B: Water

Liquid C: Butane (C4H10 – nonpolar)

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