Investigating the Effect of a Solute on the Boiling Point of Water

Introduction
At normal pressure pure water freezes at 0oC and boils at 100oC. Dissolved substances such as salt have a lowering effect on the freezing point of water and that is why they are sprinkled over wet roads in winter as the temperature then has to reach less that 0oC for ice to form. Does it also have an effect on the boiling point of water? Does the amount of salt added effect the boiling point? Aim: To investigate the effect of different amounts of salt on the boiling point of water. Hypothesis: If salt is added to boiling water, the boiling temperature of the solution will be raised, the greater amount of salt the greater the elevating effect will be. This is because it will take more energy to reach the point where it will vaporize from the solution.

Variables
Independent Variable the mass of salt (grams) added to 150cm3 of water. The salt will be added in 10 gram amounts so that the amount of salt in each of the experiments will be zero grams, 10grams, 20 grams, 30 grams, 40 grams and 50 grams. Dependent Variable the maximum temperature (oC) reached will be taken as the boiling point. This will be repeated 3 times for each solution to obtain an average boiling temperature. Controlled variable The volume of water will remain the same. As the experiment will be done in the same lesson the air pressure and temperature will be controlled. The same equipment will be used for each experiment.

Apparatus
Bunsen burner Heat proof mat Matches Tripod and gauze mat 250 cm3 beaker 5 Watch glasses Stirring rod Thermometer (-10oC to 110oC) Distilled water Salt (sodium chloride) Mass Balance (to 2 dec places) Spatula 200 mL Measuring cylinder

Experimental Set Up

Method.
1. Weigh five 10 g samples of sodium chloride. 2. Measure 150cm3 of distilled water into a beaker. 3. Heat the beaker of water using a Bunsen burner, using the thermometer as a stirrer to make sure that the energy is evenly distributed throughout the liquid. 4. Continue heating the water until the temperature does not increase any more. When this point is reached take the beaker off the heat. Allow the water to cool slightly and then heat up again, recording the highest temperature reached. Repeat one more time giving a total of 3 readings for the boiling point of distilled water. Record in a table together with any observations. 5. To the beaker of water add 10g of salt, stir to dissolve and mix thoroughly. 6. Place the solution back onto the Bunsen burner, continue mixing and record the highest temperature that it reaches.

7. Take the beaker off the Bunsen burner, wait until it cools down to 96oC and then reheat to record the highest temperature it reached again. Repeat this step one more time, giving a total of 3 readings for the boiling point of the salt solution. Record in a table together with any observations. 8. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 until all the salt has been added, recording the boiling points in the table.

Results
Observations Test Distilled water Distilled water + 10 g salt Observations In trial 1 the water started bubbling at 96oC and the temperature continued to increase to a maximum at 100oC When the salt was added to the boiling water in trial 1, the solution bubbled furiously and then stopped bubbling. When it was reheated it started to bubble again. When the salt was added to the boiling water in trial 2, the solution bubbled furiously and bubbled over the top. When the salt was added to the boiling water in trial 3, the solution bubbled furiously and then stopped bubbling. It took quite a bit of heating to get it to boil again. When the salt was added to the boiling water in each of the trials, the solution bubbled furiously and then stopped bubbling. When it was reheated it started to bubble again. Furious bubbling occurred when the salt was added.

Distilled water + 20 g salt Distilled water + 30 g salt

Distilled water + 40 g salt

Distilled water + 50 g salt

Test Trial 1 Distilled water Distilled water + 10 g salt Distilled water + 20 g salt Distilled water + 30 g salt Distilled water + 40 g salt Distilled water + 50 g salt 100 102 100 104 105 102

Boiling temperature (oC) (+/- 0.5oC) Trial 2 Trial 3 Average Trial (1+2+3) 3 99 98 99 100 103 102 103 103 102 102 103 103 102 104 104 104 106 104

The effect of different concentrations of salt on the boiling temperature of water

107 106 105 104 Boiling temperature oC 103 102 101 100 99 98 97 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Mass of salt added (g)

The graph suggests a positive linear relationship between amount of salt and boiling point; when 10 g of salt is dissolved the boiling point (from the trend line), is 101oC and this increases to 105oC when 50g are dissolved.

Conclusion
It can be seen that as the amount of salt is increased, the boiling temperature of the solution increases. This agrees with my hypothesis that increasing the amount of salt in solution will increase the boiling temperature of the water and the more salt that is added the greater is this elevating effect. Evaluation Each of the measurements was repeated 3 times. These measurements showed a range of values which is indicated by the error bars. This would suggest that the experiment should be repeated more times to ensure reliability. The difference could be due to difficulty in reading the thermometer accurately. The use of a digital thermometer could improve this. They also are close to the boiling point of water and while the real value is not known, the results make sense in the context of the experiment. One of the problems with the experiment is that there was possibly some evaporation with the each of the trials, as the aim was to reach the boiling point of the solution in each case. The evaporation would have caused the salt solution to become more concentrated which may have lead to an inflated result for the values towards the end of the experiment. To improve this I would not use the same beaker of water for the entire experiment, but make up separate solutions for each of the amounts of salt and conduct the 3 trials with that solution.