Chemistry / Chem 1568 · Procedure · 60–90 seconds
Calculating Boiling Point Elevation or Freezing Point Depression
to the StudyWalks catalog
Calculating a boiling point elevation or freezing point depression means multiplying the solute's molal concentration by the appropriate solvent-specific constant, then adding that change to the boiling point or subtracting it from the freezing point of the pure solvent.
Dissolving 92.1 g of iodine in 800.0 g of chloroform gives a molality of about 0.454 m. Multiplying by chloroform's boiling point elevation constant, 3.63 °C/m, gives a change of about 1.65 °C, raising chloroform's 61.26 °C boiling point to about 62.9 °C.
Adding the calculated change to find a new freezing point, instead of subtracting it, or subtracting to find a new boiling point instead of adding, reverses the direction each colligative effect actually acts in — a mistake easy to make when both constants appear in the same problem.