Jump to content

Melting point

Featured Replies

Chemistry help

How to define the melting point of a mixture, which is composed of substances having different- different melting points?

It's practically impossible.

It depends too strongly on the nature of the materials you mix.

For example, with two simple metals, lead and tin, you gate a phase diagram that looks like this.

https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-and-answers/using-lead-tin-phase-diagram-figure-63-determine-liquid-solid-phase-compositions-nominal-c-q9962295

 

  • Author
5 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

It's practically impossible.

It depends too strongly on the nature of the materials you mix.

For example, with two simple metals, lead and tin, you gate a phase diagram that looks like this.

https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-and-answers/using-lead-tin-phase-diagram-figure-63-determine-liquid-solid-phase-compositions-nominal-c-q9962295

 

Then, mixtures should have no melting point. But they have, how?

First you need to understand what is meant by melting point.

A true solid is a pure substance with a definite chemical composition and a definite (crystalline) structure.

Such a substance has a definite single temperature melting point.

A substance which does not have a definite chemical composition and/or no crystalline structure will exhibit a melting temperature range.

 

It is common in junior school to compare the cooling curves or softening/melting curves for a wax or resin and a pure liquid/solid such as /water ice to plot this difference.

 

Have you done this experiment?

I thought you wanted an answer to this.

John Cuthber's answer included nearly the full complexity.

Mine started more simply, leading to the all important difference between melting of a pure substance and a mixture.

The all important difference is that for a pure substance, the chemical composition does not change on melting, but for a mixture it does change.

Obviously I can stop wasting my time.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.