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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Freezing Point Depression Problems

Category: Chemical Engineering Math

"Published in Newark, California, USA"

The freezing point constant of toluene is 3.33°C per mole per 1000 g. Calculate the freezing point of a solution prepared by dissolving 0.4 mole of solute in 500 g of toluene. The freezing point of toluene is -95.0°C.

Solution:

The freezing point constant is defined as the number of degrees the freezing point will be lowered per mole of solute per 1000 g or 1 kg of solvent present. This can be written as


where m is the molality of a solution.

From the given problem, the molality of a solute dissolved in toluene is





The freezing point depression is defined as the product of the freezing point constant of a solvent and the molality of a solution.


Hence, the freezing point depression of a solution is






Therefore, the freezing point of a solution is






Note: The good application of freezing point depression is that the ice will keep longer in the container at the lower temperature. Few amount of table salt is added to the crushed ice so that the temperature will be lower than the freezing point of ice which is 0°C. If the temperature is lower than the freezing point, then the ice will not melt in the closed container. The ice cream vendors, food track vendors, and street food vendors are using ice with table salt so that their foods and drinks will keep colder in their container. If you will plan for a picnic and camping, then you can use also ice with table salt especially at the warmer or hotter areas. If the container is left open, then the ice with table salt will melt quite or slowly. Please take note that the ice with table salt will melt for a few days even though the container is closed. Table salt inhibits the melting of ice. 

Monday, September 15, 2014

Molarity of a Solution

Category: Chemical Engineering Math

"Published in Newark, California, USA"

Calculate the molarity of a solution containing 10.0 grams of sulfuric acid in 500 mL of solution. (MW of H2SO4 is 98.1)

Solution:

The molarity of a solution is defined as the number of moles of a solute per liter of a solution.  


In this problem, the weight of solute which is sulfuric acid and the volume of the solution are given.

The number of moles of sulfuric acid is



Therefore, the molarity of sulfuric acid solution is 





 

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Empirical and Molecular Formula Problems, 2

Category: Chemical Engineering Math

"Published in Vacaville, California, USA"

Acetone is the chemical solvent present in the fingernail polish remover. Its percent composition is 62.0% carbon, 10.4% hydrogen, and 27.5% oxygen. What is the empirical formula for the compound?

Solution:

Basis: 100 grams of sample 
 
Weight of each components:
  
      Weight of carbon is 



      Weight of hydrogen is


      Weight of oxygen is


Moles of each components:
  
      Moles of carbon is 



      Moles of hydrogen is


      Moles of oxygen is 
 

From the number of moles of each component, we need to divide all of them by their least number of moles which is oxygen in order to get the number of atoms in a sample.
  
      Number of carbon in a sample is

 

      Number of hydrogen in a sample is 


      Number of oxygen in a sample is


Therefore, the empirical formula for acetone is