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Freezing Point Depression Lab

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Introduction The purpose of this lab was to explore the colligative properties, in this case freezing point and freezing point depression, of the solvent p-xylene. The freezing point of p-xylene was obtained using the MicroLab program and a thermistor temperature sensor. From this data, the freezing point depression constant, kf, could be found, as well as identifying three unknown solutes by calculating their molar masses. Knowing the freezing point, or the temperature at which crystalline solid and liquid can coexist, allows for solutions or creations such as antifreeze. Antifreeze is added to the cooling water in the radiator of a car to prevent it from freezing during cold weather., Cars would not function properly without adding antifreeze. without this knowledge cars would not be able to function properly. This knowledge What knowledge? is helpful in many things that attribute to everyday life. …show more content…

The temperature of the p-xylene was recorded in the MicroLab program as the p-xylene was constantly stirred with the temperature probe until frozen. The temperature graph steadily declined for about 20 seconds until the p-xylene started to form crystalline structures, and after forming these structures the graph began to rise until leveling off as p-xylene reached its freezing point, this concept is otherwise known as supercooling. Once frozen, the thermistor sensor and the test tube were removed from the ice bath, and the p-xylene was set aside to be thawed and poured into a waste jar. The freezing point of p-xylene was then able to be determined from the data obtained in the MicroLab program by taking ten temperature points from the graph that were fairly constant and averaging them. The freezing point of p-xylene was calculated to 14.5 degrees

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