Lesson 2:

Properties of
Liquids and
Intermolecular
Forces
 Goals for today:

a. Describe the properties of liquids: surface

tension, viscosity, vapor pressure, boiling
point, and molar heat of vaporization.

b. Explain the effect of intermolecular forces

to these properties.
 Vocabularies for the Lesson

Fluid
A gas or a liquid; a substance that can flow.

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

Capillary action
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 exist naturally as a
liquid or solid at normal temperature

Vaporization
The change of phase from liquid to vapor
(gaseous phase).
Vapor pressure of a liquid
The equilibrium pressure of a vapor above its liquid;
that is, the pressure exerted by the vapor above the
surface of the liquid in a closed container.

Boiling point
The temperature at which a liquid boils. The boiling
point of a liquid when the external pressure is 1 atm
is called the normal boiling point.
 Let’s Try

Rank these forces in terms of their relative strengths:

hydrogen bonding; dipole-dipole; induced dipole
induced dipole (dispersion), and covalent bonds.

Answer:
Covalent bonds >>> hydrogen bonding > dipole-dipole
> induced dipole-induced dipole
(dispersion)

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• The properties of liquids that were observed are
consequences of the interactions of particles that
make up the liquid.
1. surface tension
2. capillary action
2.1 adhesion
2.2 cohesion
3. viscosity
4. vapor pressure of a liquid
5. molar heat of vaporization and boiling point
• Surface tension is the measure of the elastic force
in the surface of a liquid. It is the amount of energy
required to stretch or increase the surface of a
liquid by a unit area.
• Molecules within a liquid are pulled in all
directions by intermolecular forces. Molecules at
the surface are pulled downward and sideways by
other molecules, not upward away from the surface
(shown in the diagram below).

• These intermolecular forces tend to pull the

molecules into the liquid and cause the surface to
tighten like an elastic film or “skin”.

• Liquids that have strong intermolecular forces

also have high surface tension.
 Let’s Analyze
• What is the relationship between the strength of
intermolecular forces and surface tension?

• Water forms a spherical droplet on a sheet of

plastic, but kerosene will spread. Why is this?
Capillary action is the tendency of a liquid to rise in
narrow tubes or be drawn into small openings such
as those between grains of a rock. Capillary action,
also known as capillarity, is a result of
intermolecular attraction between the liquid and solid
materials.
 Let’s Analyze
• How do you explain capillary action in terms of
attractive forces formed by molecules of the liquid
and those that make up the tubes?

Two types of forces are involved in capillary

action:
• Cohesion is the intermolecular attraction between
like molecules (the liquid molecules).
• Adhesion is an attraction between unlike
molecules (such as those in water and in the
particles that make up the glass tube).
• These forces also define the shape of the surface of
a liquid in a cylindrical container (the meniscus!)

• When the cohesive forces between the liquid

molecules are greater than the adhesive forces
between the liquid and the walls of the container,
the surface of the liquid is convex.
• E.g.: mercury in a container
• When the cohesive forces between the liquid
molecules are lesser than the adhesive forces
between the liquid and the walls of the container,
the surface of the liquid is concave.
• E.g.: water in a glass container
• When both adhesive and cohesive forces are equal,
the surface is horizontal.
• E.g.: distilled water in a silver vessel
• Viscosity is a measure of a fluid’s resistance to
flow. The greater the viscosity, the slower the liquid
flows.

• Viscosity is expressed in units of centipoise. The

table below gives viscosities of liquids of some pure
substances. Water has viscosity of 1 centipoise or
0.001 Pa/s at 20oC.
• Substances with lower viscosities include carbon
tetrachloride and benzene. Glycerol has a
resistance to flow of more than a thousand times
greater than water.
• How do you relate viscosity or resistance to flow to
strength of intermolecular forces that operate
among molecules of the liquid?
• Given molecular structures of water and glycerol,
can you tell why glycerol has a higher viscosity
than water?
Answer:
• The larger number of –OH groups allow glycerol to
form more H-bonds with other glycerol molecules,
making its intermolecular forces stronger than
those of water, and its resistance to flow greater.
• Why is glycerol more viscous than ethanol?

Liquids that have strong intermolecular forces

have higher viscosities than those that have
weak intermolecular forces.
What effect temperature would have on viscosity?
• Viscosity decreases as temperature increases: hot
molasses flows much faster than cold molasses.
The viscosities of some familiar liquids in the table
below were measured at 20OC, except for lava
(ranges between 700 to 1200OC).
• What is happening to the water molecules in the
two flasks shown in the picture?
Answer:
(a) The water molecules in the liquid evaporate and
go into the vapor phase. In the open flask, some of
the water molecules in the vapor phase find their way
out of the flask are lost to the atmosphere.
(b) When a liquid evaporates to a gas in a closed
container, the molecules cannot escape.
• Gas molecules move in random directions, collide
with other gas particles and the walls of the
container.
• Some will strike the liquid surface and condense
back into it. In the closed flask, none of the gas
particles are able to get out of the container, and
eventually, the number of molecules that go into
the gaseous state would equal the number of
molecules that condense back.
• When the rate of condensation of the gas becomes
equal to the rate of evaporation of the liquid, the
gas in the container is said to be in equilibrium
with the liquid.

• In this condition, the amount of gas and liquid no

longer changes.
• Like any gas sample, the molecules in the gaseous
state over its liquid create a pressure. The greater
the number of gaseous particles, the greater the
pressure exerted by the gas.
• The pressure exerted by the gas in equilibrium
with a liquid in a closed container at a given
temperature is called the equilibrium vapor
pressure or simply vapor pressure of the liquid.
• The equilibrium vapor pressure is the maximum
vapor pressure of a liquid at a given temperature
and that it is constant at a constant temperature.
It increases with temperature.
• Vapor pressure is independent of the amount of
liquid as well as the surface area of the liquid in
contact with the gas.
Relating Vapor Pressure to
Temperature
As the temperature increases, the vapor pressure of water
also increases.
• When temperature is high, more molecules have enough
energy to escape from the liquid. At a lower temperature,
fewer molecules have sufficient energy to escape from the
liquid.
 Relating Vapor Pressure to
Strength of Intermolecular Forces

Observation:
• Ethyl alcohol and water have very low vapor pressures. Both
liquids have the strong dipole-dipole interaction called
hydrogen bonding.
• Acetone is polar but does not have H-bonding. Its vapor
pressure is of intermediate value. Pentane is a nonpolar
substance, and its vapor pressure is high compared to those
of water and ethyl alcohol.
• When liquids evaporate, the molecules have to
have sufficient energy to break the attractive forces
that hold them in the liquid state. The stronger
these intermolecular forces are, the greater the
amount of energy needed to break them.
• For some substances with weak intermolecular
forces, the energy requirement is easy obtained
from collisions with other molecules and
absorption of energy from the surroundings. Many
molecules can vaporize, resulting in a high vapor
pressure. For molecules with strong intermolecular
forces, gathering enough energy may not be as
easy, and register low vapor pressures.
The stronger the intermolecular forces of
attraction, the lower the vapor pressure of a
liquid.
MOLAR HEAT OF VAPORIZATION
AND BOILING POINT
The molar heat of vaporization (ΔHvap) is the energy
required to vaporize 1 mole of a liquid at a given
temperature. H is the symbol for enthalpy, which
means heat content at a given standard condition.
Relating Molar Heat of Vaporization
to Strength of Intermolecular Forces
• The heat of vaporization may be considered a
measure of the strength of intermolecular forces in
a liquid.

If the intermolecular attraction is strong, it takes

a lot of energy to free the molecules from the
liquid phase and the heat of vaporization will be
high.
• It is easier to vaporize acetone (lower Hvap) than water (higher
Hvap) at a given temperature, and more acetone escapes into
the vapor phase at a given temperature. Acetone is a polar
substance but has no H-bonding. It has weaker
intermolecular forces than water, and therefore acetone
molecules are held less tightly to one another in the liquid
phase.
• A practical way to demonstrate differences in
the molar heat of vaporization is by rubbing
acetone on your hands. Compare what is felt when
water is used. Acetone has a lower ΔHvap than water
so that heat from our hands is enough to increase
the kinetic energy of the these molecules and
provide additional heat to vaporize them. As a
result of the loss of heat from the skin, our hands
feel cool.
• The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at
which the liquid converts into a gas.

• A liquid boils when its vapor pressure equals the

pressure acting on the surface of the liquid. The
boiling point is the temperature at which the
vapor pressure of a liquid is equal to the external
pressure.
• The normal boiling point is the temperature at
which the liquid converts to a gas when the
external pressure is 1 atm. The normal boiling
point of water is 100oC.

• The boiling point of a liquid depends on the

external pressure. For example, at 1 atm, water
boils at 100OC, but if the pressure is reduced to 0.5
atm, water boils at only 82OC.
 Relating Boiling Point to Molar
Heat of Vaporization
• The boiling point is related to molar heat of
vaporization: the higher ΔHvap , the higher the
boiling point, as shown in the table.
 The Unique Properties of Water

Water is a good solvent.

• A unique property of water is its ability to dissolve
a large variety of chemical substances. It dissolves
salts and other ionic compounds, as well as polar
covalent compounds such as alcohols and organic
substances that are capable of forming hydrogen
bonds with water. Gases like oxygen and carbon
dioxide will dissolve in water meaning that some
animals do not need to breathe air in order to
respire but they must still be able to absorb oxygen
and excrete carbon dioxide. Water is sometimes
called the universal solvent because it can dissolve
so many things.
Relate this property to the role of water in plant
nutrition:
• Plants are able to absorb nutrient ions
dissolved in water.

Relate this property to issues of pollution:

• Issues can be caused however by the ease of
which pollutants from farming and industrial
plants are dissolved.
Water has a high specific heat.
• Specific heat is the amount of heat or energy
needed to raise the temperature of one gram of a
substance by 1oC. The specific heat of water is 1
calorie/g-oC (4.18 J/g-oC), one of the highest for
many liquids.
• Water can absorb a large amount of heat even if its
temperature rises only slightly. To raise the
temperature of water, the intermolecular
hydrogen bonds should break. The converse is
also true; water can give off much heat with only a
slight decrease in its temperature. This allows large
bodies of water to help moderate the temperature
on earth.
 Relating High Specific Heat to Changing
Climate and the Capacity of Bodies of
Water to Act as Temperature Buffer
• In summer months this means that water must
absorb a great deal of energy in the form of heat
from the sun in order for the temperature to
increase.
• Since most bodies of water are large enough not to
be significantly affected by the heat from the sun,
water provides an almost constant temperature for
the plants and animals living there.
• It takes about 4.5 times greater amount of energy
to heat up water than an equal amount of land.
Hence, large bodies of water heat up and cool
down more slowly than adjacent land masses.
The boiling point of water unusually high.
• Many compounds similar in mass to water have
much lower boiling points. The strong
intermolecular forces in water allow it to be a liquid
at a large range of temperatures.
• In the plot, the broken lines direct one to the
estimated boiling points of HF, H2O and NH3 if H-
bonding was not present in these three substances.
 Relate High Boiling Point to Questions on
Small Water Bodies Drying Up

• Small water bodies like ponds are at risk of drying

up in the summer. But since the amount of energy
required to vaporize or evaporate water is so high,
this is not expected to happen quickly.
Solid water is less dense, and in fact floats on
liquid water.
• Unlike all other liquids, the molecules in solid
water are actually farther apart than they are in
liquid water.
• When solid water forms, the hydrogen bonds result
in a very open structure with unoccupied spaces,
causing the solid to occupy a larger volume than
the liquid. This makes ice less dense than liquid
water, causing ice to float on water.
 (a) Water molecule structure
(b) Ice molecule structure.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Figure1-a-Water-molecule-structure-b-Ice-
molecule-structure_fig1_351626443
 Relating Solid Water Density to the
Survival of Aquatic Organisms in
Temperate Countries
• Water bodies freeze from the top down.
• If ice is not able to float, the water bodies would
freeze from top to bottom, and aquatic life will be
killed.
• Because ice floats, aquatic organisms survive
under the surface, which remain liquid.
• The ice surface also acts as an insulating layer
protecting the water beneath from further freezing,
and maintains a temperature adequate for survival.
• Without this feature, there would be no aquatic life
in temperate and Polar Regions.
 Let’s Try

At 50.0°C the vapor pressure of ethanol is 0.30 atm,

acetic acid is 0.08 atm, water is 0.12 atm, and
acetone is 0.84 atm.

A. Arrange these substances in order of increasing

rates of evaporation.

Answer:
A. Lowest Rate - acetic acid, water, ethanol, acetone -
Highest Rate
 Let’s Try

At 50.0°C the vapor pressure of ethanol is 0.30 atm,

acetic acid is 0.08 atm, water is 0.12 atm, and
acetone is 0.84 atm.

B. Arrange these substances in order of increasing

boiling point temperature.

Answer:
B. Lowest Boiling Point - acetone, ethanol, water,
acetic acid - Highest Boiling Point
 Let’s Try

At 50.0°C the vapor pressure of ethanol is 0.30 atm,

acetic acid is 0.08 atm, water is 0.12 atm, and
acetone is 0.84 atm.

C. Arrange these substances in order of increasing

intermolecular forces.

Answer:
C. Lowest IMF - acetone, ethanol, water, acetic acid –
Highest IMF
 Let’s Try
Within each group (alkane,
ketone, alcohol) in the table
given at the end, how does the
boiling point change as the
formula mass of that type of
compound increases?

Answer:
The boiling point increases as
the formula mass(FM) of the
alkane, ketone, or alcohol
increases.
 Let’s Try

In terms of intermolecular forces, explain why we see

this general trend with formula masses.

Answer:
The boiling point increases as the FM increases
because the molecule has more protons and
electrons, therefore the dispersion forces increase
(induced-dipole – induced dipole interactions).
1-62