One of the coolest things I did in chemistry was learning about supersaturated solutions. “The solubility of a solute is the maximum quantity of solute that can dissolve in a certain quantity of solvent or quantity of solution at a specified temperature.” (Jones, 2009) Every given amount of solution has certain solubility. (Ex: NaCl- 35.7g can be completely dissolved in 100ml of water) So, using this example, if one were to add more than 35.7g of NaCl, there would be crystals because the solution would not be able to dissolve all the NaCl. In a supersaturated solution one can have more solute in your solvent than the solubility chart says you can. You do this by heating up the solution and crystals at a high temperature and then cooling it very carefully. What is super cool about this is that when you pour a supersaturated solution upon itself it will crystallize instantly before your eyes! A supersaturated solution basically defies all the rules that we learn about solutions. Watching the solution crystallize right before your eyes is a phenomenon. This youtube shows how they heat up overly saturated sodium acetate and turn it into a supersaturated solution. This is really neat so bear through the awful music!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiHW2-pHi4I
Posted by Marika Lapham
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thats actually a really cool video, I have used a hot pack like that at home but Ive never seen the liquid crystalize so quickly to form that sort of tower!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen anything like that before! That was very fun to watch. It got the attention of all my roommates. I would love to try something like that.
ReplyDelete-Rebecca Amster
Very cool video! In my junior year chem class two girls and I attempted to make a supersaturated solution and it definitely didn't work as well. We stayed after school for almost an hour and a half and THOUGHT we were doing it well, but then it took a turn for the worst and failed and all of our work was lost. I think that we didn't cool it carefully enough, because we were anxious and getting so impatient that we tried to push it to the end too quickly. Maybe next time though!
ReplyDeleteJoe Larson