3: Phase Changes
- Page ID
- 164739
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- 3.1: Overview of Phase Changes
- Phase transitions occur when energy is gained or released by a material, resulting in either more or less order arrangements of molecules.
- 3.2: Energy of Phase Changes
- Fusion, vaporization, and sublimation are endothermic processes, whereas freezing, condensation, and deposition are exothermic processes. Changes of state are examples of phase changes, or phase transitions. All phase changes are accompanied by changes in the energy of a system. Changes from a more-ordered state to a less-ordered state (such as a liquid to a gas) are endothermic. Changes from a less-ordered state to a more-ordered state (such as a liquid to a solid) are always exothermic.
- 3.3: The Clausius-Clapeyron Relationship
- Because the molecules of a liquid are in constant motion and possess a wide range of kinetic energies, at any moment some fraction of them has enough energy to escape from the surface of the liquid to enter the gas or vapor phase. This process, called vaporization or evaporation, generates a vapor pressure above the liquid. Molecules in the gas phase can collide with the liquid surface and reenter the liquid via condensation. Eventually, a steady state or dynamic equilibrium is reached.
- 3.4: Phase Diagrams
- The temperature and pressure conditions at which a substance exists in solid, liquid, and gaseous states are summarized in a phase diagram for that substance. Phase diagrams are combined plots of three pressure-temperature equilibrium curves: solid-liquid, liquid-gas, and solid-gas. These curves represent the relationships between phase-transition temperatures and pressures. The intersection of all three curves represents the substance’s triple point at which all three phases coexist.