Let Chemistry Absorb You. Ha.

Alright, boys and girls, this here's a chemistry post and it's about to get real.

Mr. Lieberman reviewed the test with us, like a boss, and gave us two points because of an error and because of leniency. Then he reviewed with us the basic principles of solutions.

• A solute is the substance that is being dissolved
• A solvent is the liquid in which the solute is dissolved
• Solute dissolves in solvent
• Aqueous = solution with water as solvent

Easy, right?

A saturated solution is a solution where the solute has dissolved into it at a maximum. No more solute can be dissolved in this saturated state.

In the notes that Mr. Lieberman explained in class, there is a diagram of NaCl dissolving in H2O showing the driving forces that cause the dissolving of this solute, NaCl, into this solvent, H2O (most of the solvents in this unit will be H2O and all of them will be liquids! Awesome!). In the diagram, the H2O molecules, which are polar, attach themselves to the Na+ or Cl- atoms according to polarity. So an H2O molecule's negative pole will attach to the positive Na atom. And an H2O molecule's positive pole will attach to the negative Cl atom. This will pull the crystal-like structures of NaCl apart. This is a demonstration of an ionic solute dissolving by dissociation into its ions. There are two more types: Covalent solutes dissolving by H-bonding to water and covalent solutes dissolving by London dispersion forces (LDF).

This process is carried out instantaneously, it cannot be viewed through a microscope or observed at all, for that matter.

Furthermore, there are three stages to this same solution process explained in further detail here.

1. Primarily, there is the separation of a solute, and in order of this to happen, the solute's molecules must surpass their intermolecular forces (IMF) and it requires energy, making it endothermic.
2. Secondly, the separation of a solvent occurs when the solvent overcomes its intermolecular forces. This also requires energy, also making it endothermic.
3. Thirdly, the interaction of these two substances occurs. An attractive bond forms between the solvent and solute molecules and this releases energy, making it exothermic.

Phenominal! Now we understand the heat exchanges that occur within this process, let's continue!

We continued with the in-class notes and took a look at the factors affecting the solubility.

We know that Like dissolves like, which means that molecules with the same type of intermolecular forces will dissolve in eachother. E.g. dipole-dipole, Hydrogen bonds, and LDF.

Cool, huh?

Tell you what's not cool, that the raise of temperature in these solutions causes more collisions which allows easier access into these crystal structures, allowing for further saturation of a solution.

Finally, there is pressure. Solids and liquids are hardly affected by pressure changes in relation to solutions, but gas, under higher pressure, will have a higher solubility.

Well done, Captain, you have successfully acquired knowledge of solutions and can continue on your path to success. Enjoy your good HEALTH:

The next scribe is Becky N. (Rebecca N.)

Lots of Reactions

In class today, we started a lab with many different sodium and nitrate groups, totaling 48 reactions. Why would we do that many, you ask? Well it has to be either:

a) Mr. Lieberman likes to make us do a ridiculous amount of writing and balancing equations

b) To help us formulate rules on formation of precipitates.

or c) All of the above

I'm Gonna go with C.

To start off, we put various solutions containing water and a Sodium Ion in each column. Then, we added a Nitrate solution to each of those, receiving varying results:

Some did absolutely nothing, leaving a clear liquid behind.

Others changed colors, but no precipitate formed.

Still others formed either a cloudy or completely solid precipitate, meaning that a reaction occurred.

And a couple did this:

Just kidding. But still, it was exciting. Here are the real results:

And my data table, if you can read it:

And the post lab is the real fun part: we have to write chemical equations for EVERY SINGLE PRECIPITATE! Both molecular and net ionic. For example, the molecular equation would be: 3Na₂SO₃+2Al(NO₃)₃ yields Al₂（CO₃）₃+6NaNO₃ and the net ionic equation would be: 2Al³⁺+ 3CO₃² yields Al₂(CO₃)₃. And repeat. About 20 times. Just a thrilling homework assignment. Oh, and by the way, for those who can't realize it yet: NaNO₃ is a product for every single molecular reaction, and always dissolves.
Thank you for reading my post. I hope you all do wonderful on your labs now. Now, the next scribe will be:.............................................

Ben A.

The Scream Heard 'Round the World

Today, class started off with Mr. Lieberman telling everyone to get out their Classifying Chemical Reactions Lab so we could go over the post-lab questions, which asked you to find the equations for some experiments that you did during the lab. People wrote the answers on the board and we cleared up any questions about them. For answers see Brandon L's previous post that described the lab's experiments and their equations.

After we finished discussing the lab, we moved on to the notes for the day. Although we only got through the first part of the notes, we still learned a lot about solutions, and how electrolytes and ions are related. Mr. Lieberman explained that a solution contains a solute, which dissolves, and a solvent, which is what the solute dissolves into. He also explained how water was the most common solvent. As a solvent, water dissociates ionic compounds into its ions. For example if you dissolved table salt (NaCl) into water, then one would see each individual ion separately, because water breaks the Na+ and Cl- apart.

We started to talk about electrolytes, and the difference between strong and weak electrolytes. I general, electrolytes are allowed to pass through a current if there is a sufficient amount of ionization. Strong electrolytes contain enough ions to carry a current efficiently, while weak electrolytes don't completely dissociate and have a small amount of ionization.

To give us a visual of how electrolytes and ions really worked, Mr. Lieberman performed the light bulb experiment. First he used sugar to see if he could light the light bulb. To fake out the class he screamed to make it seem like there was going to be light. Sure enough, the infamous Korri then proceeded to shriek so loudly, that it was heard around the country, and maybe even the entire world because it was as if every students ear drums were being punctured and then completely ruptured. Mr. Lieberman then demonstrated how the sugar, which has no ions, didn't light the light bulb. He then mixed salt and water together. The water acted as the solvent and the salt was the solute. Na+ and Cl- ions were formed and the light bulb irradiated a lot of light.

You can check out this video, as a woman explains electrolytes and currents.

That's it for class on November 4th.

The next scribe will be the oh so special, John A.