Specific Latent Heat

From Key stage 3 you’ve been aware that it takes

energy to change a solid into a liquid and a liquid into
a gas.
The temperature of the substance doesn’t change all
the time this transformation is happening.
The graph for heating a substance is identical to the
cooling curve, with two flat sections where the
substance is changing state.
However heat energy is still being supplied during
this time, but to do what exactly?
When a liquid is heated the energy supplied
turns into kinetic energy of the molecules and
forces them apart.
Eventually they gain enough energy for some of
them to break free of the liquid, if their energy
is sufficient, remembering the random
distribution.
This increases their potential energy.
The energy needed to turn 1 kg of a liquid to
a gas is called the latent heat of vaporisation.
This will be a different value for different
liquids and is the reason we sweat – it cools us as
we supply the energy to change it’s state.
When a solid is heated the energy supplied
turns into vibrational kinetic energy of the
molecules and forces them further apart.
Eventually they gain enough energy for some of
them to break free from their fixed positions
turning the solid into a liquid as they are not
totally free of the other molecules.
This increases their potential energy.
The energy needed to turn 1 kg of a solid to a
liquid is called the latent heat of fusion.
This will be a different value for different
substances, explaining why ice can exist in water
at 0oC.
 Consider heating a block of ice until it
melts and finally boils:
Temperature

Water
Steam
boiling at
100 °C heating
100°C
up from
Ice Water warming 100°C
melting at from 0°C to
0 °C 100°C
0°C
Ice
Time
warming up
to 0 °C
Make sure you can explain a graph like this in terms
of average energy of molecules and energy supplied.
 Note that at 100°C both water and steam exist
together and the temperature cannot rise until
all the water has boiled away if it is well mixed.
In practice (in an open pan) the steam cannot
exceed 100°C as it gets its heat from the water
which cannot exceed 100°C).
At 0°C both ice and melt water exist.
Enthalpy
This is the term use for the amount of energy supplied to a
substance when it is changing state. Some of this energy will go
into raising the temperature but if the substance expands it will
also do some work on the surroundings by “squashing” them.
The word enthalpy can therefore be swapped into the equations
used later or instead of the term “Latent Heat”
 This apparatus can be
used to investigate
the latent heat of
vaporisation of water.

• Boil water and pour in to the insulated container

• bring back up to boil with the heater
• Start the timer and record current and voltage
• Record how long it takes to boil away 10g of water
• Evaluate the latent heat as shown – latent heat of
vaporisation = 2.3 MJkg-1.
W = ITV = lm
 12V
V Supply
12 Volts
A

Control

This apparatus can be

used to investigate the
latent heat of fusion of
water.
• Add crushed ice to the two arrangements
shown
• Leave the experiments for a couple of minutes
to allow all pieces to cool to the temp of the ice
• Turn the heater supply on, start the timer and
record current and voltage
• Record how much water is melted in both
experiments in a known time
• Subtract the mass of water melted without
the heater from the other mass of water to
establish how much water the heater melted
• Evaluate the latent heat as shown – latent
heat of fusion = 330 kJkg-1.
W = ITV = lm
 Specific Latent Heat l
The amount of heat required to change
the state of 1kg of a substance without
changing its temperature.

Energy Transfer = ml

Enthalpy supplied = mass * specific enthalpy

The units of l are Jkg-1

Remembering that you must be using the correct

Latent Heat for the transformation taking place.
 Questions
1) 200g of water is placed in a can. The
temperature of both the water and the can is 20°C.
300g of water at 80°C is added and mixed. What is the
final steady temperature of the mixture? (cw =
4200Jkg-1K-1, Heat capacity of the can =200Jkg-1 )
Heat lost by hot water = heat gained by cold water and
can Call the final
mcw  Thot = mcw  Tcold + C  Tcold temperature Tf

0.3x4200x(80-Tf) = 0.2x4200x(Tf-20) + 200x(Tf-20)

100800-1260Tf = 840Tf - 16800 + 200Tf - 4000
2300Tf = 121600
Tf = 52.9°C
 2) 5g of ice at 0°C is now added. What will the
final temperature of the mixture be? (l =
3.4x105Jkg-1 )
Heat lost by water and can = heat gained by ice
melting & the melt water heating up to Tf
{mcw  Thot} + {C  Thot} = {l  mice} + {micecw  Tcold}

0.5x4200x(52.9-Tf) + 200(52.9-Tf) = 3.4x105x0.005 + 0.005x4200x(Tf-0)

111090 - 2100Tf + 10580 - 200Tf = 1700 +21Tf

2321Tf = 119970

Tf = 51.7°C