Grade 12 Chemistry · Colligative counting
Properties that only count
score 0

Properties that only count

A colligative property depends on HOW MANY solute particles are dissolved and not at all on what they are — the word shares a root with “collect”. Sugar and urea at the same molality shift water's boiling point by exactly the same amount. Three of them earn marks:

ΔTb=Kbb\Delta T_b = K_b\,bdelta T-b equals K-b times b. ΔTb\Delta T_b is the rise in boiling point in °C, bb is the solution's molality in mol/kg, and KbK_b is the solvent's ebullioscopic constant, 0.512 °C·kg/mol for water. Its twin is ΔTf=Kfb\Delta T_f = K_f\,b, where ΔTf\Delta T_f is the drop in freezing point and KfK_f is the cryoscopic constant, 1.86 °C·kg/mol for water — more than three times the boiling one, which is why salt on a driveway earns its keep and salt in a pot barely does. Both constants belong to the SOLVENT, never to the solute.

The trap worth tattooing: ΔT\Delta T is a change, not a temperature. The formula hands you the size of the shift; you still have to apply it to where the pure solvent started. Boiling point becomes 100+ΔTb100 + \Delta T_b; freezing point becomes 0ΔTf0 - \Delta T_f. An answer of “1.02 °C” to a boiling-point question is a half-finished answer.

Third: osmotic pressure, Π=MRT\Pi = MRTΠ\Pi is the capital Greek letter pi, and it is the pressure in kPa you would have to push back with to stop solvent crossing a membrane into the solution. MM is the molar concentration in mol/L, TT is absolute temperature in kelvin, and RR is the same 8.314. Look at its shape: it is PV=nRTPV = nRT with n/Vn/V renamed MM. These forms are the non-electrolyte ones — a salt that splits into ions counts each ion separately, and that correction is a later chapter's business.