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3 States of Matter PG
Thursday, 31 August 2023 09:53

We will start with water as an example for the states of matter (= Aggregatszustände). But before we can start, we need to clarify the terms:

There are several ways to express the word "Aggregatszustand" in English:

• State of matter

• State of aggregation

• Aggregate state

Let us begin with water as an example. Name the three states water can be in

The red and blue arrows (= Pfeile) indicate phase transitions (= Phasenübergänge) red means warming blue means cooling

Note!: The names for the phase transitions are universal.

What actually is steam

Which of the following pictures shows steam?

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The states of matter:
Generally the names for the states of matter are

Exercise:
Name the following transitions

States of matter on the substance and particle level

We just looked at the definition on the substance level. Now we will consider the particle level as well.

Influence of pressure on the states of matter

The incompressible states of matter (solid, and liquid) are not really influenced by changes in pressure. However, the gas state is heavily influenced. You can compress and decompress a gas.
This is also the reason why the transition from a liquid to gas or from gas to liquid can be influenced by pressure changes.

Compression of a gas in a gas syringe (= Kolbenprober)

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Changes in the state of matter on the particle level
What exactly is changing on the particle level when changes in state of matter happen? We look at this from cold to warm.

The particles start oscillating more and more around their position in the grid. When the oscillation becomes stronger than the attractive forces between them, they can move past each other's. The distances
between the particles increase. The substance melts into a liquid.

When the liquid is further heated, the particles move even faster. Up to the point where they are able to free themselves from the attractive forces of the other particles and move freely in space.

The following image illustrates those mechanism one more time.

What happens when a substance boils?

Now we will have a closer look on the substance level on the boiling and melting process.

For this we will perform an experiment first.

Experiment
We want to find the boiling point of water. We will use the following setup. We will note down the temperature vs. the time.

As seen, the temperature becomes steady at 98 °C (this is due to our current altitude of 570 amsl (above mean sea level)). You probably expected the water to boil at 100 °C. This would be exactly at sea level.
Another point we can take from this experiment is that as long as there is liquid water inside the flask the boiling point won't rise above 98 °C no matter how much we heat.

What happens when a substance melts?

The melting of a substance is similar to the boiling of a substance.

Exercise
What do you expect the temperature of an ice-tea cooled with ice cubes (= Eiswürfel) to be? How long will it maintain this temperature? (The melting point is not influenced by changes in pressure and altitude)

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Considerations on energy
You might have observed already that heating water to its boiling point requires a lot of energy. But what is happening once the boiling point is reached?

Evaporation
When a substance is evaporated energy is taken up by the substance. This increases the velocity (= Geschwindigkeit) of the particles. The particles that are moving the fastest (the ones with the highest energy) are then able to break free
and leave the liquid. The ones that remain (the ones with lower energy) need to take up more energy to also leave the liquid state. That is the reason why the temperature won't rise. All the energy that comes into the system is spent on
bringing the particles from the liquid into the gas state. This energy is called heat of vaporisation.

We can note down the following definitions:

 Heat of vaporisation:

How is it when we go from gas to liquid state?

 Heat of condensation

Melting
Similar rules apply for the melting process. When you get an ice-cube out of the refrigerator, then the cube must first warm up to its melting temperature of 0 °C. At this point again the particles that have enough energy to leave the grid
will go into a liquid phase. The particles that remain need to pick up more heat to perform this transformation. This heat is called melting heat or heat of fusion

Again we can note down definitions

 Heat of melting:
How is it the other way around?

 Heat of solidification (or crystallisation heat)

This heat that is released when a substance solidifies must be transported away in a refrigerator when you want to freeze ice cubes.

Summary
When we summarise the above information into one figure, we obtain the following (example with water)

Image Source

Side note boilng point of water vs. elevation:

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Exercises:
1. Butane gas is loaded into a gas syringe. When the gas is firmly compressed in the syringe, condensation occurs. Explain this phenomenon using the particle model.

When a Gas is compressed, the space for the Butane particles becomes less and less. The attractive forces get larger with sma ller distance between the particles. Therefore, the gaseous butane condenses into a liquid.

2. A portion of water has a comparable volume in both its solid and liquid states, but when it vaporizes, there is a volume incr ease of over a thousand times. Explain this using the particle model.

In solids and liquids the distance between the particles are small, due to the high attractive forces. In the gaseous state t here are practically no attractive forces. The distance between the particles is large. When there is no outside
pressure (as in space) the particles could theoretically be spread out indefinitely

3. Sometimes, for simplicity, people refer to solid particles, liquid particles, and gas particles. Strictly speaking, this is i ncorrect because an individual particle cannot have a specific state of matter. Explain why this is the case.

There is no such thing as a gas, solid, or liquid particle. The state of matter is a property of a substance and not of its i ndividual particles.
You can have solid, liquid and gaseous substances, but no solid, liquid or gaseous particles

4. On beautiful winter days when the sun shines on snow-covered fields, one can observe that more and more snow disappears, even if the temperatures are well below 0°C during the da y and night. Explain this observation.

The ice is sublimating under these conditions. Usually on cold winter days the humidity is low. This means that the air could take up more water as it is not saturated yet.

This process can also be triggered artificially (= künstlich). When an object is frozen and placed in a vacuum, the water will be removed as well. This is the so called lyophilisation ( = Gefriertrocknung).

5. There are three terms for the transition from the liquid to the gaseous state: evaporation, boiling, and vaporization. Differ entiate these terms from each other.

Vaporisation: General description for the transformation of a substance from the liquid to the gas state

Boiling: Is the fast vaporisation of a substance at its boiling temperature

Evaporation (= Verdunstung): Is the vaporisation below the boiling temperature of a substance. This is also the process that takes place when we are sw eating. The temperature on the skin is not 100 °C.

6. What is the state of matter for the substances listed in the following table at 0°C, 20°C, and 100°C?

Substance Melting point[°C] Boiling point [°C] State at 0 °C State at 20 °C State at 100 °C
Oxygen - 219 - 183 Gas Gas Gas
Butane - 139 -1 Gas Gas Gas
Ether - 116 34 Liquid Liquid Gas
Alcohol (Ethanol) - 115 78 Liquid Liquid Gas
Mercury (= Quecksilber) - 39 357 Liquid Liquid Liquid
Glycerine 18 290 Solid Liquid Liquid
Naphthalene 80 218 Solid Solid Liquid
Sulfur (= Schwefel) 119 444 Solid Solid Solid
Lead (= Blei) 327 1740 Solid Solid Solid
Table salt 800 1460 Solid Solid Solid
Iron 1535 2750 Solid Solid Solid

7. Why are thermometers made with mercury not use in polar regions and instead thermometers with coloured alcohol are used?

Mercury is a solid below -39 °C. In the polar regions the temperature can go easily below this threshold. Alcohol solidifies at -115 °C, a temperature that is not reached on earth, even in the polar regions.

8. When liquids evaporate, they become cooler and absorb heat from the surroundings. This phenomenon is referred to as evaporati ve cooling. How can this phenomenon be explained using the particle model?

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8. When liquids evaporate, they become cooler and absorb heat from the surroundings. This phenomenon is referred to as evaporati ve cooling. How can this phenomenon be explained using the particle model?

The temperature is an indication of the average velocity of the particles of a substance. There are particles that move slower and there are particles that move faster. The faster particles can leave a liquid. If they do so, they leave
behind the slower moving particles. This means that the average velocity of the particles of a substance becomes less. Theref ore, also the temperature decreases.

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