Lecture Notes: Mixtures, Compounds & Solutions

The physical properties of any substance include size, shape, state, and color. Changing a
physical property of a substance does not change the chemical make-up. For example, heating a
sample of water to boiling changes not only the temperature but also its state (liquid to gas).
However, the chemical make-up of water remains unchanged. Breaking a pencil or dissolving
salt into water are also examples of physical changes.

Classification of Matter

The flow chart below represents the classification of matter. All matter is composed of atoms or
molecules. An atom is the most basic form of matter that cannot be broken down into a simpler
substance. Molecules are composed of atoms. The simplest particle of water is the molecule,
which is composed of two atoms of hydrogen chemically bonded to one atom of oxygen.

Pure substances contain only one kind of atom or one kind of molecule. For example, water is a
pure substance, but a mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas is not a pure substance. A mixture
of atoms or molecules are not chemically combined, therefore they may be separated from each
other. This is true for all mixtures. At the upper right corner of the first page of Laboratory 13 is
a picture of a soft drink and a slice of pizza. Both of these are mixtures of ingredients. The pizza
is an example of a heterogeneous mixture since each individual component of the mixture can
be seen. It is easy to see that the components of this mixture can be separated or removed. The
soda is an example of a homogeneous mixture since the individual components of the mixture
are uniformly distributed and not visible. While the process of separating the components of the
soda involve a bit more know-how, nevertheless it can be accomplished.

Chromatography

Complex molecules called dyes are responsible for the color of clothes, paint, photographs,
plastics, paper, ink, and just about every other imaginable product you come in contact with. The
purpose of this portion of the laboratory is to examine if the color responsible for a given pen is a
mixture of dyes or due to a single dye (pure substance). In this experiment we are separating the
dye molecules responsible for the color and not separating colors.
Dye molecules are very complex molecules that may contain from 50 to 100 atoms. In
chromatography, the dye molecules are separated based on the differences in the molecule's
mass, size, shape and solubility. Water is used to carry the dye molecules up the paper, and the
differences in the physical properties of the dye molecules causes the dye molecules to be carried
either farther up the paper or remain near the bottom. Remember that molecules are real objects
and have a three-dimensional size and shape like any other object.

 A heavy molecule remains near the bottom of the paper and a molecule with less mass
may be carried higher up the paper.
 A large molecule remains near the bottom and a smaller molecule may be carried higher
up the paper.
 A molecule that has branches or "arms" will remain near the bottom while molecules
with a spherical or regular shape will appear higher up the paper.
 A molecule that is more insoluble in water will remain near the bottom while a more
soluble molecule will migrate farther up the paper.

Distillation

Distillation is the separation of the components of a mixture based on the difference in boiling
points for the components of a mixture. Crude oil pumped from deep inside the earth is a
mixture of hundreds of molecules. Large oil refineries separate the components of crude oil
based on the differences in the boiling points of the components. Thus gasoline, motor oil,
heating oil, jet fuel, paint thinner, and many other solvents are separated and purified from this
very complex mixture. The raw chemicals used to make plastics also come from crude oil!

Distilled water is pure water. Spring water is not. Tap water is not. Rain water is not. Distillation
removes the impurities from water because the impurities have different boiling points than
water. In the laboratory experiment the alcohol contained a colored impurity. When the alcohol
was boiled, condensed, and collected, it formed a clear liquid, while the impurity remained
behind in the test tube. The alcohol had a lower boiling point than the impurity and could be
easily separated using the difference in this physical property.

Change in State

If you boil a pot of water on the stove and monitored its temperature you would see that the
boiling water would never rise above 100 degrees Celsius. As we saw in a previous laboratory,
when the temperature of a substance is increased the kinetic energy of the particles increases
causing the velocity of the particles to increase and they move around much faster colliding with
each other and their container. So before the boiling point is reached the energy is used to
increase the kinetic energy of the particles. But when the boiling point is reached, the water is
absorbing heat energy but its temperature is not increasing. So where does the energy go? It is
used to break the intermolecular bonds between water molecules. For a substance to change its
state from a liquid to a gas the bonds between water molecules must be broken. This requires
energy and this is how the heat energy is being used and not to raise the water's temperature.
When a substance is changing from a liquid to a solid it is freezing. This occurs at the same
temperature when a substance melts (changes from a solid to a liquid). During the freezing of the
moth balls notice that the temperature remained constant for a long time. This is the freezing
point of moth balls and represents the release of energy to form intermolecular bonds so that the
substance could change from a liquid to a solid. The temperature at which any substance changes
state is constant, and represents when intermolecular bonds are either being broken (boiling,
melting) or are being formed (condensation, freezing).

From an old experiment using moth balls,

Solubility

In making a solution, the material being dissolved is called the solute and the substance doing
the dissolving is the solvent. The solute and solvent can be in any state, solid, liquid or gas. Here
are a few examples that you may not be aware are solutions:

Solution (state) Solute (state) Solvent (state)

Carbonated water (liquid) Carbon dioxide (gas) Water (liquid)

Bronze (solid) Tin (solid) Copper (solid)

In general, the solubility of a substance increases as the temperature increases. I notice this
phenomenon when I buy an iced-coffee in the summer since there is usually always undissolved
sugar at the bottom of the cup. The graph below represents the change in solubility for many
substances as a function of temperature. Notice that in all cases there is an increase in the
solubility when the temperature of the solvent (water) increases.
If a solute is added to a solvent and the solute dissolves the resulting solution is said to be
unsaturated. When a solvent can no longer dissolve additional solute the solution is called a
saturated solution. However, an interesting phenomena occurs when we force a solvent to
dissolve more solute than it normally should. This solution is called supersaturated. If a
solution is heated to dissolve a solute then cooled you may think that the solute would become
saturated because by lowering the temperature the solubility has decreased. But for some
substances the solute will remain dissolved even though the temperature and solubility have
decreased. At this point the solution is supersaturated.

Below is a series of photographs illustrating this phenomena. The first photograph shows the
supersaturated solution. Notice that it looks like an unsaturated solution because the solute is
completely dissolved. However, when too much solute is dissolved in a solvent the solute wants
to crystallize (form a solid). However, the solute needs some help in forming a solid crystal
(which is a regular pattern or arrangement of molecules.) The addition of a crystal of the solute
(called a seed crystal) gives the dissolved solute molecules in solution the pattern by which to
form a solid crystal. In the second and third pictures the addition of the seed crystal causes the
dissolved solute to crystallize and form a solution. At this point the solution is a saturated
solution because the solution contains undissolved solute.