General

Chemistry
2
Quarter 3 - Module 2A
Properties of Liquids and
Intermolecular Forces
 Fluid
A liquid or gas; a substance that flows.

Surface tension
It is the elastic force in the surface of a liquid. It is the amount of energy required to increase
or stretch the surface of a liquid by a unit area.

Capillary action
It is the tendency of a liquid to rise in narrow tubes or to be drawn into small openings.

Viscosity
A measure of a fluid’s resistance to flow.

Vapor
A gaseous substance that exists naturally as a solid or liquid at normal temperature.

Vaporization
The change of phase from liquid to gas/vapor.

Vapor pressure of a liquid

The pressure exerted by the vapor above the surface of the liquid in a closed container. It
is the equilibrium pressure of a vapor above its liquid.

Boiling point
The temperature at which a liquid boils. Normal boiling point is boiling point of a liquid
when the external pressure is 1 atm.

Molar heat of vaporization (ΔHvap)

The amount of energy (usually in kilojoules) required to vaporize 1 mole of a liquid at a specific
temperature.

Intermolecular forces give rise to several structural features and properties of liquids. In this
section we will look at five such phenomena associated with liquids in general: surface
tension, viscosity, vapor pressure, boiling point, ang molar heat of vaporization. The properties
of liquids that were observed are consequences of the interactions of particles that make up the
liquid.

1. Surface Tension
Molecules within a liquid are pulled in all directions by intermolecular forces. There is
no tendency for them to be pulled in any one way. However, molecules at the surface are pulled
sideways and downward by other molecules, but not upward away from the surface (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Intermolecular
forces acting on a molecule
in
the surface layer of a liquid and
in the interior region of the liquid

Karp, 2010
These intermolecular attractions appear to draw the molecules into the liquid and like an elastic
film, cause the surface to tighten. A drop of water assumes the form of a small round bead. There
is little to no attraction between polar water molecules and the nonpolar molecules since a
sphere minimizes the surface area of a liquid. This effect is also created by a wet apple's waxy
surface (Figure 2).

Figure 2.Water beads on an

apple, which has a waxy
surface

Karp, 2010

Surface tension is a measure of the elastic force on a liquid's surface. It is the amount of
energy needed by a unit area to stretch or increase the surface of a fluid (for example, by 1 cm 2).
There are also high surface tensions in liquids that have solid intermolecular forces. Thus, water
has a much greater surface tension than most other liquids because of hydrogen bonding.

Figure 3. Surface tension enables

the water strider to “walk” on
water.

Karp, 2010

Capillary action is another example of surface tension. Figure 4(a) reveals a capillary
tube, water rises spontaneously. A thin water film adheres to the wall of a tube of glass. This film
is caused to contract by the surface tension of water as it pulls the water up the tube.
Capillary action is brought on by two types of forces: cohesion and adhesion. Cohesion
is the intermolecular attraction between similar molecules (water molecules, in this case).
Adhesion is an attraction between unlike molecules, such as those in water and in the sides
of a glass tube. If adhesion is stronger than cohesion, as it is in Figure 4(a), the contents of the
tube will be pushed upward. This process continues until the adhesive force is balanced by the
weight of the water in the tube. This action is by no means universal among liquids, as Figure
4(b) shows. In mercury, cohesion is greater than the adhesion between mercury and glass, so
that when a capillary tube is dipped in mercury, the result is a depression at the mercury level—
that is, the height of the liquid in the capillary tube is below the surface of the mercury.
Figure 4. (a) When adhesion
is greater than cohesion, the liquid
(for example, water) rises in the
capillary tube. (b) When cohesion
is greater than adhesion, as it is
for mercury, a depression of the
liquid in the capillary tube results.
Note that the meniscus in the tube
of water is concave, or rounded
downward, whereas that in the
tube of mercury is convex, or
rounded upward.

Brown, 2015

1. Viscosity

The term "slow as January molasses" owes its reality to another physical property of
liquids called viscosity. Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a fluid to flow. The greater the
viscosity, the more the liquid flows steadily. As temperature increases, the viscosity of a liquid
normally decreases; hot molasses thus flow much faster than cold molasses.
Liquids with strong intermolecular forces are higher in viscosity than those with weak
intermolecular forces (Table 1). Owing to its ability to form hydrogen bonds, water has a higher
viscosity than many other liquids. It is noteworthy that glycerol's viscosity is significantly higher
than all of those other liquids mentioned in Table 1.
Glycerol has the structure like water. It can form hydrogen bonds. Each glycerol molecule has
three-OH groups that can participate in hydrogen bonding with other glycerol molecules.

Figure 5. 3D and 2D
structures of glycerol - a clear,
odorless, syrupy liquid used to
make explosives, lubricants
and ink.

Brown, 2015
 1. Vapor Pressure

By evaporation, molecules may escape from the surface of a liquid into the gas phase. Suppose
we place in an evacuated, closed container a quantity of ethanol (CH3CH2OH), as in (Figure 6). Quickly,
the ethanol starts evaporating. The pressure exerted by the vapor in the space above the liquid
increases consequently. The pressure of the vapor reaches a constant value after a short period, which
we call vapor pressure.

Figure 6. Vapor pressure over a liquid

Any of the ethanol molecules on the liquid surface have ample kinetic energy at any moment to
overcome their neighbors' attractive forces and thus, escape into the gas phase. The passage of
molecules from the liquid phase to the gas phase continuously goes on at every given temperature.
However, as the number of gas- phase molecules increases, the likelihood increases that a molecule
will reach the liquid surface in the gas phase and be recaptured by the liquid, as shown in Figure 6 in
the flask on the right. The rate at which molecules return to the liquid is, finally, equal to the rate at
which they escape. In the gas phase, the number of molecules then reaches a stable value and the
pressure exerted by the vapor becomes constant.
The situation in which two opposing processes occur at equal rates simultaneously is called
dynamic equilibrium (or simply equilibrium). Chemical balance, in which chemical reactions are the
opposite mechanisms, is a type of dynamic equilibrium. When evaporation and condensation occur at
similar rates, a liquid and its vapor are in dynamic equilibrium. It might appear that since there is no
net shift in the system, nothing happens in equilibrium. In fact, however, as molecules constantly move
from liquid state to gas state and from gas state to liquid state, a great deal happens. The vapor
pressure of a liquid is the pressure exerted by its vapor when the liquid and vapor are in dynamic
equilibrium.
 Boiling Point

A liquid's boiling point is the temperature at which its vapor pressure, acting on the liquid
surface, equals the external pressure. The thermal energy of the molecules at this temperature
is high enough for the molecules within the liquid to break free from their neighbors and enter the
gas phase. As a consequence, bubbles of vapor form inside the liquid. If the external pressure
rises, the boiling point increases. The boiling point of a liquid at 1 atm (760 torr) pressure is called
its normal boiling point. From Figure 7, we see that the normal boiling point of water is 100°C. The
time
required for food to be cooked in boiling water depends on the
water. The temperature is 100 °C in an open container, but it is possible to boil at higher temperatures.
Pressure cookers operate by only allowing steam to escape when it exceeds a predetermined
pressure; therefore, the pressure above the water can rise above atmospheric pressure. The higher
pressure allows the water to boil at a higher temperature, making it easier for the food to get hotter
and cook quicker.
The influence of pressure on the boiling point also explains why cooking food at high elevations
takes longer than it does at sea level. At higher altitudes, the air pressure is lower, so water boils at a
temperature lower than 100 °C, and food typically takes longer to cook.

F
Brown, 2015
 2. Molar Heat of Vaporization

A measure of the strength of intermolecular forces in a liquid is the molar heat of

vaporization (ΔHvap), defined as the energy (usually in kilojoules) required to vaporize 1
mole of a liquid. The molar heat of vaporization has a direct relationship to the strength of
intermolecular forces that exist in the liquid.

Table 2.Molar heats of vaporization and boiling points of some substances

ΔHvap (kJ/ Boiling Point*

Substance
mol) (OC)

Argon (Ar) 6.3 -186

Pentane(C5H12) 26.5 36.1
Acetone (CH3COCH3) 30.3 56.5
Ethanol (C2H5OH) 39.3 78.3
Water (H2O) 40.79 100

*Measured at 1 atm

Rubbing ethyl alcohol on your hands is a realistic way to illustrate variations in the molar heat
of vaporization. Compare what is felt while using water. Ethyl alcohol has a lower ΔH vap than water so
that heat from our hands is enough to increase the kinetic energy of these molecules and provide
additional heat to vaporize them. As a consequence of the loss of heat from the skin, our hands feel
cool.
The Structure and Properties of Water

On Earth, water is so prevalent a material that we often forget its special existence. All processes
of life include water. For several ionic compounds, as well as other substances capable of forming
hydrogen bonds with water, water is an excellent solvent.

Table 3. The Specific Heats of Some Common Substances

Substance Specific Heat (J/goC)

Al 0.900
Au 0.129
C (graphite) 0.720
C (diamond) 0.502
Cu 0.385
Fe 0.444
Hg 0.139
H2 O 4.184
C2H5OH (ethanol) 2.460

As Table 3 shows, water has a high specific heat. The explanation is that to boost water
temperature (that is, to raise the average kinetic energy of the water molecules), we must break the
several hydrogen intermolecular bonds first. Water can also consume a large quantity of heat while its
temperature increases just slightly. The reverse is also true: with just a small reduction in its
temperature, water will give off a lot of heat. For this reason, by absorbing heat in the summer and
giving off heat in the winter, with just minor changes in the temperature of the body of water, the vast
amounts of water that are present in our lakes and oceans will effectively moderate the climate of
neighboring land areas. Water's most striking property is that its solid form is less dense than its
liquid form on the surface of liquid water, that is why ice floats (Figure 9). The density of almost all
other substances is greater in the solid state than in the liquid state.

We have to analyze the electronic structure of the H2O molecule to understand why water is
different. There are two pairs of nonbonding electrons, or two lone pairs, on the oxygen atom:

Figure 8. Electrostatic potential map of water

Karp, 2010
Figure 9.Left: Ice cubes float on water. Right: Solid benzene sinks to
the bottom of liquid benzene.

While intermolecular hydrogen bonds can be formed by many compounds, the difference is
that each oxygen atom will form two hydrogen bonds between H 2O and other polar molecules, such as
NH3 and HF, the same as the number of lone electron pairs on the oxygen atom. Thus, in an extensive
three-dimensional network in which each oxygen atom is roughly tetrahedrally bound to four
hydrogen atoms, by two covalent bonds and by two hydrogen bonds, water molecules are joined
together. This equality in the number of hydrogen atoms and lone pairs does not define NH 3 or HF, or
any other molecule capable of forming hydrogen, for that matter. Consequently, rings or chains, but
not three-dimensional structures, may be formed by these other molecules.

Figure 10. The three-dimensional

structure of ice. Each O atom is bonded to
four H atoms. The covalent bonds are
shown by short solid lines and the weaker
hydrogen bonds by long dotted lines
between O and H. The empty space in the
structure accounts for the low density of
ice.

Brown, 2015
The highly ordered three-
dimensional ice structure (Figure 10) makes it difficult for the molecules to get too close to each
other. But remember what happens with the melting of ice. A number of water molecules have enough
kinetic energy at the melting point to break free from the intermolecular bonds of hydrogen. In the
cavities of the three-dimensional structure, which is broken down into smaller clusters, these
molecules become stuck. As a consequence, in liquid water, more molecules per unit volume are
present than in ice. Thus because of mass/volume density, the water density is higher than that of ice.
More water molecules are released from intermolecular hydrogen bonding with further heating, so
that the water density continues to rise only above the melting point with the increasing temperature.
Water expands as it is heated at the same time of course, so that its density is decreased. These two
processes work in opposite directions: the trapping of free water molecules in cavities and thermal
expansion. Trapping prevails from 0 °C to 4 °C and water becomes increasingly denser. However,
thermal expansion predominates above 4 °C and water density decreases with rising temperatures
(Figure 11)

Brown, 2015

Figure 11.Plot of density versus temperature for liquid

water. The maximum density of water is reached at 4°C. The
density of ice at 0°C is about 0.92 g/cm3.