‘Freezing Point Depression’ Home Lab

– Lab Report

Name: Angelina Hung

Date of Experiment: 2023-09-10

Introduction:
Examples of freezing-point depression can be seen everywhere, from ice cream
to vodka not freezing in a freezer, to radiator fluids in average everyday gasoline cars.
The very concept and meaning of this natural phenomena occurs, and has been utilized
by us humans in our everyday lives, like the prevention of ice forming on roads during
winter days through salt; and for this lab we will be taking a closer look at this
phenomena.

Purpose and Background:

The main purpose of this lab is to determine, as directly quoted from the
objectives in the FPD lab guide, “ the relationship between freezing point depression of
saltwater and solute concentration”. Through the completion of the two parts of the lab,
side objectives such as expressing the concentration of the solute in molarity and close
observations of the tendency of water freezing when surrounded by salt water will also
be achieved and thoroughly analyzed.

A general definition for freezing point depression is a process where the temperature a
liquid normally freezes at is lowered due to adding in another compound. This special
property depends on the number of dissolved particles you have in the given solution.
Because this is a physical change that happens after the addition of a compound
(solute) to a liquid (solvent ), this is considered a colligative property.
A solvent is the liquid that is in the greater amount that will be dissolving the solute we
put in, while the solvent is the thing being dissolved into the solvent.

Dissolving a solute into the water will result in dissolved solute particles in water
preventing water molecules from easily arranging themselves in a neat and orderly
stack, unable to simulate a solid in which they " freeze" and turn into ice.
In the first part of the lab, we will be dissolving salt and sugar separately into cups of
insulated water. This is to observe the effects concentrations of amounts of solute on
the temperature of the solution.
Sugar is a molecular compound, so its individual molecules will not break apart in the
water.
Salt is an ionic compound, so it dissociates in water and splits into 2 separate ions.
From the above information, I have come up with my own hypothesis for the Part 1 of
the experiment.

Hypothesis for Part 1:

If I dissolve more salt into the ice water, then the freezing point of the solution will then
decrease, because the salt now dissolved into Na and Cl ions are obstructing the
possible ways the water molecules can slow down and rearrange themselves into a
solid ice structure.

Hence, the more of the solute I add, then the lower the temperature it takes for the
water or liquid to reach its freezing point. The same would be applicable with the sugar.

Purpose and Background for part 2:

For the second portion of the lab, the main purpose is to observe the tendency of
water to freeze when surrounded by subzero saltwater, as directly quoted from the
freezing point depression lab handout.
According to a statement from within the second law of thermodynamics, heat will flow
from warmer objects to colder objects, until they have both reached a state in which
both are around the same temperatures.
From the above information, I have generated my own hypothesis on the possible
results .

Hypothesis for Part 2:

 If I put a sealed ziploc bag of 30mL water into the large bag of saltwater composed
from originally 1/4th crushed ice and 1 cup of salt, then the water in the small ziploc bag
will be close to frozen into ice. This should happen because of the main principle of heat
flowing from warmer objects into cooler objects until they reach around the same
temperatures; the saltwater in the bag should be, despite being melted crushed ice
mixed with a cup of salt, very cold.
The heat from the ziploc bag will then flow from the water in the ziploc bag to the
surroundings, until the water itself in the ziploc bag is almost the same temperature as
the freezer bag saltwater.

Note: 1 tablespoon = 15mL , so 2 tablespoons = 2 x 15mL = 30 mL

Materials:

• 5 styrofoam cups ( I substituted that for 5 plastic cups wrapped in tin foil)
• Marker or pen (I used sharpie)
• Masking Tape
• Water (tap water)
• Crushed ice** (done as suggested, used vitamix smoothie blender to blend/crush ice)
• Salt (table salt, brand is windsor)
• Sugar (Rogers sugar)
• Thermometer (Digital Thermometer for meat used)
• Measuring cup (plastic, usually used for baking but cleaned for the experiment)
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon
• Spoon or stirring utensil
• Strainer (small sized strainer)
• My periodic table

(All materials above were set up as in the Chemistry 11 Freezing Point Depression Lab pdf, unless noted
in brackets the difference or explained in greater detail what the material was)

Procedure Part 1:
1) Print off the table (instead of taking it off) on the last page of this lab for use during the lab,
as stated in Freezing Point Depression Home Lab

2) Place 5 properly insulated cups in front of you on the cleaned work surface, as conducted in
the FPD home lab

3) Using the Sharpie and masking tape, Label the cups:

0 mL of salt, 10 mL of salt, 20 mL of salt, 30 mL of salt, and 30 mL of sugar
Methodology referenced from FPD lab, only difference is that I wrote on the masking tape and
taped it onto the cups. (Has no effect on the functionality of the cups.)

4) Fill the measuring cup to around 100 mL of crushed ice. Slowly pour water into the cup until
the ice/water mixture reaches 100 mL. After, fill the first 4 salt cups with 100 mL ice/water.
Repeat steps 5 – 8 for each salt cup.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

5) Measure out each respective amount of salt, using tablespoons(5mL) and teaspoons
(15mL). Take the spoon and stir the saltwater continuously until it dissolves. Also, for the 20 mL
and 30 mL solute, add the solute slowly in portions.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

7) After you have stopped stirring, wait for the temperature to stabilize (stays constant or close
to a constant temp). Once you get an initial stable reading, record it. This temperature is the
freezing point of the solution. Record the temperatures in column B.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

8) Using a strainer, strain the ice out of each cup (strain over a cup or bowl to capture the
liquid). Measure the volume of the remaining liquid (salt water) using measuring spoons or
measuring cups. Record the results in Column C.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

9) In the final cup labelled 30 mL sugar, add 30 mL of sugar solute into 100 mL of ice/water
mixture. Stir well. Record the freezing temperature in Column B.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)
 Data table and Calculations for Part 1:

A B C D E F G

Solute Temperature Strained Water Mass of Salt (g) Moles of Salt Liters of Molarity (M)
(⁰C) (mL) (to 2 sf) (to 2 sf) water (2 sf)

0 mL 0.0 ± 0 ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛
salt

10 mL -1.2 ± 0 -0.20 ± 0 22 0.027 0.132 2.9

salt

20 mL - 2.5 ± 0 -1.4 ± 0 44 0.75 0.153 4.9

salt

30 mL -4.9 ± 0 -2.1 ± 0 66 1.1 0.182 6.0

salt

30 mL - 1.3 ± 0 ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛
sugar

Sample Calculations:
Materials Part 2:

• 1 large freezer bag (ziploc brand)

• 1 small Ziploc bag (as recommended, the sandwich ziploc bag)
• 1 cup
• Crushed ice (done as suggested, used vitamix smoothie blender to blend/crush ice)
• Salt (table salt, brand is windsor)
• Oven mitts

(All materials above were set up as in the Chemistry 11 Freezing Point Depression Home Lab
pdf, unless noted in brackets the difference)

Procedure for Part 2:

1) Add crushed ice to the large freezer bag until the bag is about ¼ full.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

2) Take the temperature. Record in the google docs table.

This was conducted slightly a bit differently than the original FDB lab procedure for recording
data, they asked for the experimenter to record data directly below in given blank space on
digital lab handout. Other than that, there are no more discrepancies.

3) Add 1 cup of salt to the large freezer bag.

(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

4) Squeeze as much air as possible and close the bag.

(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

5) Mix until the ice has completely (or mostly) melted. ( this took me around 8-ish minutes) The
bag will get very cold so put on gloves or hold the bag with a towel to protect your hands. Rub
your hands against the ice in order to melt it faster.
 (as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

6) Take the temperature, and record it in the final column of the data table set up in google docs
(Different than the origins FDB lab procedure for recording data, they asked for the
experimenter to record data directly below in given blank space on digital lab handout)

7) Open the small freezer bag and pour 2 tablespoons (30mL) of water into it.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

8) Close the small bag and put it inside the large freezer bag.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

9) Let it sit for one minute. Remove the small bag. Record your observations.
(as directly stated and conducted in the FPD lab handout)

Data table and Qualitative Observations for Part 2:

Temperature of Freezer bag when it was filled Temperature of the Freezer bag of Saltwater
about 1/4th full with crushed ice Solution
(Step 2) (Step 6)

-0.5° ± 0 °C -16.4° ± 0°C

Properties of the 30 mL contents within the ziploc bag after a minute in Freezer bag:

After a minute in the freezer bag, the zip lock bag of water had formed a really flat thin
sheet of ice. The color was semi translucent, there were water droplets condescending on the
outside when I took it out after to take a photo, but not all of it was frozen.
Some of the ice cracked and shattered when I picked up the bag because it was really thin, and
some hadn't frozen, so it became like that in the photo when I tried to take it.
Because when I dropped the ziploc bag I the freezer bag of salt water, the water must have
spread out within the small bag making the water layer thinner and easier for the heat to
disperse into the surroundings, and for the water in the sandwich ziploc bag to reach a relatively
similar below zero temperature (-16.4 °C) same as the freezer bag, which is exceedingly below
the freezing point of water, guaranteeing the water in the sandwich bag to definite freeze over
and turn into ice.
3 Pictures from the Lab:
 Discussion Questions
1. Evaluate each of your hypotheses. Make sure to use your results to refute or verify your
hypothesis.

In the first hypothesis, I theorised that the temperature at which the water could freeze at
would be depressed by further additions of salt. For 10mL of salt added to water, the freezing
point was -1.2⁰C; for 20mL of salt the freezing point was -2.5 ⁰C; and for 30mL of salt the
freezing point was - 4.9⁰C . The trend from the data collected was the greater the amount of salt
that was added and dissolved into the cold water, the more the freezing point would depress,
going in line and proving my first hypothesis. The extra data collected from the 30mL of sugar
proved my point that the dissolving of a solute into water only obstructs its attempts at obtaining
perfect alignment to form into a solid state (ice) and lowers the temperature of which the water
can freeze at.

At the beginning of the lab, my hypothesis for part 2 was that if I placed a sealed ziploc bag of
30mL of water into the freezer bag of saltwater solution, the 30mL of water would freeze after a
minute, due to the supposed tendency of water to freeze in sub zero saltwaters. In order for
water to remain as a liquid, it must be above the natural freezing point of 0⁰C, and that was true
until we placed it in the bag. Surrounded by saltwater with a temperature of -16.4⁰C , the small
sealed bag of 30mL water froze quickly into a thin sheet of ice after a minute.

This proves that water when placed in a cold environment, will tend to have its heat disperse
into its surroundings to match or bring itself to a relatively close temperature as its surroundings.

2. Why does the 10mL of salt dissolve more readily than the 30mL of salt?

This relates to the chemistry 11 knowledge we learned on supersaturation and

saturation. When I lowered the temperature of the water by adding crushed ice in, I lowered the
amount of solute dissolvable into the solvent (ice water) .
Dissolving in 10mL of salt is relatively easy because it is a small amount of dissociated
ions to fill in the gaps between water molecules and water molecules, but 30mL of salt dissolved
in the water is a lot more particles than 10mL so it may take time (and a lot of stirring) to evenly
the distribute the ions of the dissociating salts and fill in the gaps gaps between water molecule
and water molecule.This leads to the slower dissolving speeds.

3. How is temperature related to solubility: in other words, how does temperature affect the speed
of dissolving and amount of solute that can dissolve? Why was it important to stir the cups that
contained solute?

At a given temperature there is a limit to the amount of solute we can dissolve in a given

amount of solvent, especially if the temperature is cold. This is because the water (solvent)

molecules are moving around much more slowly and have less space between each of the

others for the solute can dissolve and disperse unlike if the water was heated, and they were

moving away from each other at and moving around at faster speeds.

If there is less space between each water molecule, then when the salt dissociates, there isn’t

much space for the ions to fill in, so they can’t really dissolve quite yet.

Stirring the cups that contained solute allowed the salt to dissolve and more easily reach and fill

the gaps in the space between water molecules that are now hard to reach because of the cold

water temperatures making mobility, and also space less available. It can also help the water

maintain more even temperatures, rather than the salt clumped area having extremely low

temperatures and the less salt concentrated areas of the water having higher temperatures.

Therefore from that analysis based on concepts learned previously, I can safely conclude that

an increase in temperature increases the speed and rate at which the solute can dissolve while

the inverse is also true. Stirring assists in speeding up the process at which a solute can

dissolve, if the solution or solvent has not been fully saturated yet.
4. How did the temperature change by increasing the amount of salt in the water?

For the first increase in the amount of salt from 10mL to 20mL, the temperature went
from -1.2⁰C all the way to -2.5 ⁰C, a -1.3⁰C difference.
For the second increase in the amount of salt from 20mL to 30mL, the temperature increased
from -2.5 ⁰C to - 4.9⁰C , a -2.4⁰C difference.
The temperature on average decreased by around 1.8⁰C for every addition of 10mL of cold
water.
This in conclusion means that every addition of salt will only further the depression of the
freezing point of water until it is fully saturated.

5. How did the temperature obtained by sugar water compare to the freezing temperature
obtained when 30mL of salt were added to the same amount of water?

The temperature of the sugar water solution was a mere -1.4 ⁰C in comparison to the 30mL salt

saltwater solution which had a temperature of -4.9⁰C, in total a 3.5⁰C difference.

This disparity in temperature may be due to the fact that when dissolved in water, salt is

capable of dissociating into ions, which makes it more particles than sugar which can only

dissolve into the water but remain as whole molecules. Because of that, salt can more easily

obstruct the water’s attempts at freezing and geometrically aligning themselves perfectly to form

ice, which means that you need a colder temperature than usual to make it easier to happen.

This leads to the freezing temperature of water depressing by far greater amounts for when you

add salt to ice water than sugar, and thus we can see that difference reflected in the data

collected for the -1.4 ⁰C sugar water solution and the -4.9 ⁰C salt water solution.
6. Plot a molarity vs. temperature graph. Attach the graph to your full lab report. (Graph paper
provided at the end of this lab). Describe the relationship.

As the molarity of a solution increases, the freezing temperature of said solution depresses.
The above data points have been plotted and a line of best fit has been drawn.
The start point has been decided to be at 0M,0 degrees celsius, because it is a concrete fact
that usually normal water has a freezing temperature at 0 degrees celsius.

From the best fit line drawn, the linear graph had a slope of -0.6695, in the context of the y-axis
going in decreasing temperature (more negative) going up.

This leads to the assembly of an equation generated from the graph made from data collected.

Temperature = -0.6685 × molarity

**** where temperature is in celsius
7. What freezing temperature would you predict if 40mL of salt was placed in the water? (Hint: use
your molarity graph to extrapolate!)

After extrapolating, I have gotten an approximate value of -6.1 ⁰C.

This prediction would be in line with the fact that additions of salt will result in more particles of
the dissociated ions floating in the water making it far more difficult for the water to freeze over
thus lowering the temperature even further.

8. Why does salt depress the freezing temperature more than sugar? [Hint: think about how they
are bonded (ionic or covalent) and what happens when they are added to water (dissolving vs.
dissociation)].

Sugar is a covalently bonded molecule, it does not dissociate into separate ions like salt
does. For salt (NaCl) which is a compound consisting of ionic bonds, when dissolved in water, it
dissociates into two ions, meaning that when salt dissolves in water it has more particles than
sugar does. This means that there are more salt particles obstructing water molecules more
effectively from forming perfectly crystalline structures for ice when the temperatures of the
water are low enough to freeze compared to sugar.

1. The large freezer bag of salt water is similar to cold ocean water, on a much smaller scale. If the
temperature is below 0⁰C, the freezing point of water, why is the salt water not frozen?

Despite the temperatures of the salt water being below 0 degrees celsius, at a whopping
-4.9 ⁰C, the salt water did not freeze because of the salt that has been dissolved into it. The
sodium chloride( salt) ions now freely floating around the crushed ice water makes it difficult for
the water molecules to align themselves in neat and orderly structure in which they have
reached a solid state.
Because of the ions making it very hard for them to align themselves orderly similarly to the
molecular arrangements of a solid, it is very hard for the salt water to freeze over.
2. Is it possible to make the salt water colder and colder forever just by adding more salt? Explain
your answer.

There is a limit to the amount of salt that can be dissolved into the water at a given
temperature. Dissolving more salt into the waters results in more salt ions dissociated, resulting
in more and more gaps between water molecules and water molecules being filled, up to the
point where in such low temperatures, it is impossible or highly improbable to fit in any more. At
this point, it means that the water (now salt water solution) has been fully saturated. So that
means no, you cannot make the salt water colder and colder forever just by adding more salt,
because there is a limit to how much salt that can be used to saturate the given solution.

3. Why does the water inside the smaller bag freeze so easily? Explain in terms of heat flow.

Heat has a tendency to flow from warm objects to cool objects until the temperatures are
relatively the same, according to the second law of thermodynamics. Based off of this, the small
amount of water in the bag when placed in the saltwater like solution is at a much higher
temperature then the saltwater at that time; because of such differing temperatures, the heat
energy/temperature of the small freezer bag will be lowered significantly whereas the
temperature in the saltwater solution will be raised marginally in an attempt at balancing out the
differing temperatures and bringing them closer to being equivalent to each other.
This results in the water molecules in the small freezer bag losing enough energy to move
around and slowly slow down and the water then eventually, after a minute, reaches a solid like
state.
This was evident when the small ziploc bag of water was no longer water and instead was ice,
when it was taken out of the large freezer bag of saltwater.

4. Consider icebergs that are found in the Arctic. Icebergs are composed of freshwater and are
formed when a large piece of a glacier or other land-based ice sheet breaks off and then float in
the salty ocean water. Using your observations in part 2 of the lab, explain why icebergs remain
frozen when surrounded by liquid saltwater.

The main reason is that small blurb from the second law of thermodynamics, heat tends
to flow from warm to cold. And this is until they are of relatively similar temperature. Take the
small ziploc bag of water again as an example, despite being at a relatively high temperature in
comparison to the -16.4° C of the freezer bag of cold saltwater, because it is much warmer
than the saltwater, all of the heat energy get transferred to the surrounding saltwater in the
freezer bag when the sealed small ziploc bag is placed in.

The same concept can be applied to ice bergs. Ice is relatively cold, with it being composed
mainly of water; its freezing point originating from water should be around 0 degrees celsius.

From the results in the lab, we saw that the small amounts of water in the sandwich ziploc bag
froze after one minute exposure of -16.4° C temperature saltwater,

5. The virtual labs that you did earlier in the course were designed to help you build some lab
skills (both practical skills and report-writing skills). Which skills did you find yourself using in
this home lab?

In this lab, I find myself being more aware of the guess digits (XD). I also find myself
hyperfocusing on developing a proper hypothesis. I found it really helpful that I could take the
feedback I got on previous labs to improve on that here in this lab, and also simultaneously view
what I did well so I can reference that and apply it in this lab.
Being able to carefully analyze the data and making connections to what I learned was really
important and something I found myself doing during answering the discussion questions
sections, as the majority of the questions weren’t just the average Hebden textbook question I
saw in the pdfs!
Another thing that I found myself utilising was the main formats suggested in the past labs, it
really helped out in the setup and layouts for this lab.

6. Is there any part of this lab report that you would like me to notice (for example, something that
you worked on improving in this lab report)?

I put extra time in providing a thorough explanation for each of the discussions. I worked
on the guess digits, and made sure to include it for all measurements made involving
temperature and mL. I also made a small teaser for the beginning named introduction to hook
readers of the lab into the lab before I information/analysis bomb them.
General Conclusion:

After the completion of the home lab, from the data results and analysis for part 1 of the lab, we
can safely conclude that the dissolving dissolvable compounds into water can depress the
temperature at which water freezes at.
Ionic compounds dissolved in water, due to water’s polar properties, the dissociation of the
ionic compound into ions will further depress the freezing point of water. (ie. salt)
This does not apply to covalent compounds (ie. sugar).

When water is surrounded by subzero temperature saltwater, from part 2 of the experiment we
were able to prove that it follows the tendency for dispersing its heat to the surroundings and to
attempt to reach a point of equilibrium in temperature in which both are relatively the same.
Because of the saltwater being at subzero temperatures, the water will freeze into ice given
enough time.

Bibliography:

Admin. “What Is Freezing Point Depression &Amp;Amp; How It Works With Videos.” BYJUS, July 2022,

byjus.com/chemistry/depression-freezing-point.

Accessed 2023-09-22