The nature of the solvent
Now turn the experiment round. Hold the solute still and change the solvent instead.
Activity 3.1.9 — method
Take 50 ml each of water and of kerosene, both at the same temperature, into two small beakers. Put 5 g of sugar into each of the two liquids and stir. In which liquid does the sugar dissolve?
The observation
The sugar added to the water dissolves completely. In the kerosene it barely dissolves at all. Same solute, same mass, same temperature, and two entirely different outcomes.
What this activity holds still
The mirror image of the last one. Three things are the same in both beakers:
- The solute — sugar in both
- The mass of solute — 5 g in both
- The temperature — the same in both
Only the solvent differs. In equal volumes of different solvents at the same temperature, the solubility of one and the same solute comes out different.
The nature of the solvent affects solubility.