Department of Chemistry

Physical Chemistry Lab I

CHEM 355

Fall 2020

Vapor Pressure of a Pure Liquid

Student name:

Lulua Al Janahi 201600103

Date of experiment: 16/9/2020

Section: 52

Instructor: Joanna Pajak

Introduction:
Vapor pressure is determined by thermodynamically balanced vapor with
the condensed phases at a specified temperature in a closed structure. The
vapor pressure of equilibrium is an indicator of the liquid's evaporation
rate which corresponds to the ability of particles to escape from the
liquid. A liquid with a high vapor pressure at ambient temperature is
often referred to as volatile. When the temperature of the solvent
increases, the kinetic energy of the molecules also increases, and as the
kinetic energy of the molecules increases, the number of molecules
moving through the vapor also increases, increasing the vapor pressure. If
a sample of a liquid is stored in a container, the liquid may begin to
evaporate. The molecules will migrate from the relative containment of
the liquid state to the gaseous state. This conversion tends to end as
consistency is reached when the container is closed. Under the conditions
of balance, the rate of evaporation shall be equal to the rate of
condensation.

Vapor pressure, which is the partial pressure exerted by the gas phase in
balance with the liquid phase, is an indicator of the extent of the
vaporization. The higher the vapor pressure of the liquid, the greater the
concentration of the substance in the gaseous phase, and the greater the
rate of vaporization. The vapor pressures of fluids vary greatly. If two
liquids are compared at the same temperature, the more volatile the
greater the vapor pressure. For instance, volatile compounds have a low
boiling point and a comparatively weak intermolecular interaction, high
boiling points, and relatively strong intermolecular interaction with non-
volatile compounds, and if the compound has a high boiling point the
lower the vapor pressure, and vice versa. The vapor pressure of any

2
compound rises not linearly with the temperature, and the atmospheric
boiling point of the liquid is the temperature at which the vapor pressure
is equal to the maximum atmospheric pressure. With every gradual rise in
that temperature, the vapor pressure is adequate to exceed atmospheric
pressure and raise the liquid to produce vapor bubbles within the bulk of
the substance.
The exponential rise in vapor pressure with increasing temperature allows
us to use natural logarithms to express the nonlinear relationship as a
linear one.
−∆ H vap 1
lnP=
R ( )
T
+C

Where lnP is the natural logarithm of the vapor pressure, ΔHvap is

the enthalpy of vaporization, R is the universal gas constant (8.314
J/K.mole), T is the temperature in kelvins, and C is the y-intercept, which
is a constant for any given line.

(1)
Plotting lnP versus the inverse of the absolute temperature T is a

−∆ H vap
straight line with a slope of . this equation called the Clausius–
R

Clapeyron Equation can be used to calculate the ΔHvap of a liquid from

its measured vapor pressure at two or more temperatures.
In this experiment, we are going to measure the vapor pressure of acetone
and ethanol in a range of temperatures, then we will determine the heats
of vaporization of ethanol and acetone using Clausius–Clapeyron
Equation.

3
Experimental Method:

Equipment and materials :

 Ethanol
 Acetone.
 Buchner flask
 Boiling beads
 Hot plates
 Rubber stoppers with temperature and pressure sensors.

Procedure:

In this experiment, 50 ml of ethanol was added to the 250 ml Buchner

flask with few boiling beads. Then, the flask was placed on the hot plate.
Once the liquid boils, allow a few minutes boiling for the vapor of the
liquid to fill the flask. Then the rubber stoppers were inserted with
temperature and pressure sensor. After that, the flask was removed from
the hot plate and placed it on the benchtop, then the sensors were attached
to the computer to collect the data until the temperature drops to about 30
0C. The same procedure was repeated with acetone.

4
Results & Calculations:
Ethanol:
120

100

80
p(kPa)

60

40

20

0
40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85
T©

f(x) = − 5165.44 x + 19.38

4.5

4
ln(p)

3.5

2.5
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1/T

Acetone:

5
 110

100

90

80
p(kPa)

70

60

50

40
35 40 45 50 55 60
T©

4.7
f(x) = − 4306.29 x + 17.73
4.5

4.3
ln(p)

4.1

3.9

3.7

3.5
0 0 0 0 0 0
1/T

Calculations:

For Ethanol:
−∆ H vap
Slope=
R
∆ H vap=-Slope x R = -5165.4x8.314J/K.mol = 42945.14J/K.mol
experimental value−theoretical value
% erorr= | theoretical value
x 100 |
=|42945.14−42300
42300 |x 100= 1.5%
For Acetone:
−∆ H vap
Slope=
R

6
∆ H vap=-Slope x R =-4306.3 x8.314J/K.mol= 35802.58 J/K.mol
experimental value−theoretical value
% erorr=| theoretical value | x 100

=|35802.58−31300
31300 |x 100= 14.4%

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Discussion:

Through this experiment, we were able to determine the values for the
vapor pressure with their relative temperature for both ethanol and
acetone. We poured the liquid in a flask and placed it on the hot plate to
boil it. Once the vapor filled the flask, we inserted the rubber stoppers
along with the temperature and the pressure sensors and we placed the
flask on the bench. the substance inside the flask reached the point of
equilibrium the temperatures and pressure values were obtained. With
this, we could see that the vapor pressure would get higher as an
increased amount of liquid molecules transferred to the gas phase as heat
is being added to the system when the temperature gets higher.
Furthermore, when looking at the values determined, we can see that the
vapor pressure of acetone is higher in comparison to that of ethanol since
it has a stronger intermolecular force. For instance, ethanol has higher
intermolecular forces because its alcohol and does have a
direct O−H connection. Hence, ethanol has intermolecular hydrogen
bonds, while acetone is a ketone that has weak intermolecular forces. A
more stable liquid phase is the result of strong intermolecular forces
meaning they will not break out to the vapor phase.
By using the Clapeyron equation we sketched a graph with the slope
being the natural logarithm of the vapor pressure  lnP   against the inverse

(1)
of the temperature T , produced the negative heat of vaporization over

the gas constant. After calculations, 42945.14J/K.mol 35802.58 J/K.mol

were the resultant values for the heat of vaporization for ethanol and
acetone, respectively. The acetone heat of evaporation less than ethanol
because it is more volatile and has weaker intermolecular forces.

8
Additionally, their percent errors were determined to be 1.5% and 14.4%
relatively. Though this seems pretty accurate, leaks could be a reason for
the deviations present. By creating a more thorough seal, more accurate
results can be achieved. Also, the acetone error percentage is more than
ethanol because acetone is more volatile.
Since these percents are pretty low, we can conclude that this experiment
was both accurate and successful. And we successfully achieved the main
object.

Reference:

Physical Chemistry Lab I Manual “CHEM 355”

https://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cbook.cgi?ID=C67641&Mask=4
https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/General_Chemistry/Map
%3A_A_Molecular_Approach_(Tro)/11%3A_Liquids_Solids_and_Intermolecular_F
orces/11.05%3A_Vaporization_and_Vapor_Pressure#:~:text=1896%C2%B0C-,Boili
ng%20Points,case%20of%20an%20open%20container.