Freezing Point Depression

Freezing Point Depression


This article goes along with my first article for science fair. My project is going to be on supercooling.
As said before, supercooling is the process of water remaining as a liquid below the normal freezing point.

This is due to freezing point depression. Freezing point depression is when the freezing point of a liquid is lowered by adding a substance to it.

For example, sea water has a lower freezing point than pure water because of the added salt.

 This picture shows how the substances added to the water can hinder it from freezing.

Freezing Point Depression happens due to the number of particles present, not the amount there or the type of particles.

Super Cooling At Its Best

Super Cooling is Pretty Cool! 

 Supercooling (That cool thing in the video) is being able to cool liquid BELOW it's freezing point without it freezing. Cool, huh?
 Water freezes because it crystallizes on a nucleus type structure IN the water. Water that can be supercooled doesn't have this nucleus type structure, so it won't freeze below freezing point.

What causes the water to freeze?
It's through a process called homogeneous nucleation. It's where the nucleus mentioned above becomes frozen. In supercooling, it happens ABOVE the water, so it doesn't freeze.

Eventually, supercooling ceases to stop the freezing when the water is disturbed in some way. The water starts to form ice crystals, and then eventually starts to freeze completely.

 

This whole process of supercooling is pretty cool. I can't wait to finish researching it and then test it,


Science Fair