Raoult's law [key] [for F. M. Raoult, a French physicist and chemist] states that the addition of solute to a liquid lessens the tendency for the liquid to become a solid or a gas, i.e., reduces the freezing point and the vapor pressure (see solution). For example, the addition of salt to water causes the water to freeze below its normal freezing point (0℃) and to boil above its normal boiling point (100℃). Qualitatively, depression of the freezing point and reduction of the vapor pressure are due to a lowering of the concentration of water molecules, since the more solute is added, the less the percentage of water molecules in the solution as a whole and therefore the less their tendency to form into a crystal solid or to escape as a gas. Quantitatively, Raoult's law states that the solvent's vapor pressure in solution is equal to its mole fraction times its vapor pressure as a pure liquid, from which it follows that the freezing point depression and boiling point elevation are directly proportional to the molality of the solute, although the constants of proportion are different in each case. This mathematical relation, however, is accurate only for dilute solutions. The fact that an appropriate solute can both lower the freezing point and raise the boiling point of a pure liquid is the basis for year-round antifreeze for automobile cooling systems. In the winter the antifreeze lowers the freezing point of the water, preventing it from freezing at its normal freezing point; in the summer it guards against boilover by raising the boiling point of the water.
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