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10: Solutions

  • Page ID
    172947
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    Solutions are all around us. Air, for example, is a solution. If you live near a lake, a river, or an ocean, that body of water is not pure H2O but most probably a solution. Much of what we drink—for example, soda, coffee, tea, and milk—is at least in part a solution. Solutions are a large part of everyday life. A lot of the chemistry occurring around us happens in solution. In fact, much of the chemistry that occurs in our own bodies takes place in solution, and many solutions—such as the Ringer’s lactate IV solution—are important for our health. In our understanding of chemistry, we need to understand a little bit about solutions. In this chapter, you will learn about the special characteristics of solutions, how solutions are characterized, and some of their properties.

    • 10.1: Prelude to Solutions
    • 10.2: Solutions
      Solutions form because a solute and a solvent experience similar intermolecular interactions.
    • 10.3: The Dissolution Process
      When a solute dissolves, its individual particles are surrounded by solvent molecules and are separated from each other.
    • 10.4: Concentration
      Various concentration units are used to express the amounts of solute in a solution. Concentration units can be used as conversion factors in stoichiometry problems. New concentrations can be easily calculated if a solution is diluted.
    • 10.5: Colligative Properties of Solutions
      Colligative properties depend only on the number of dissolved particles (that is, the concentration), not their identity. Raoult's law is concerned with the vapor pressure depression of solutions. The boiling points of solutions are always higher, and the freezing points of solutions are always lower, than those of the pure solvent.
    • 10.6: Colligative Properties of Ionic Solutes
      For ionic solutes, the calculation of colligative properties must include the fact that the solutes separate into multiple particles when they dissolve. The equations for calculating colligative properties of solutions of ionic solvents include the van't Hoff factor, i.
    • 10.7: Solutions (Exercises)
      Problems and select solutions to this chapter.
    • 10.8: Solutions (Exercises)
    • 10.9: Solutions (Summary)
      To ensure that you understand the material in this chapter, you should review the meanings of the bold terms in the following summary and ask yourself how they relate to the topics in the chapter.


    10: Solutions is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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