MadSci Network: Chemistry
Query:

Re: Does the viscosity of a liquid effect it's freezing point ?

Date: Sat Jan 24 13:17:36 2009
Posted By: Adil Bukhari, Undergraduate, Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park
Area of science: Chemistry
ID: 1231015243.Ch
Message:

Xiola,

Let's start out by defining a few terms.

Viscosity: Viscosity is a liquid's “resistance to flow.” In other words, you can tell how viscous a liquid is by pouring it out of a cup – a liquid with a lot of viscosity (ketchup, for example) will take longer to pour than another liquid with less viscosity (water's a good example). You can see a picture of viscosity in action here (the liquid on the left is more viscous).

Freezing Point: This is the temperature at which a liquid becomes a solid. For example, water becomes ice at zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).

A liquid usually becomes a solid when it is cooled down past the freezing point. The liquid's viscosity becomes very large when its temperature begins to approach this freezing point. Ice cream tends to become a puddle when left outside; however, if stored in a refrigerator it will become hard to scoop and even harder to “pour” out of its box (it becomes a solid and has a very large viscosity). If we stop here, we can give a short answer to your question: a higher viscosity leads to a higher freezing point (the liquid freezes more easily).

The real answer, however, involves the atomic structure of the liquid. I will try to make this part of my answer easy to understand. Every liquid can be divided into a smaller part – a cup of water can become many small drops of water, and even those drops can become extremely tiny molecules. When the liquid cools down and its temperature comes closer to the freezing point, each of its molecules will settle down into a certain structure or pattern. Some liquids have molecules that fit together into simple shapes while other liquids have molecules that do not work so well together and form weirder structures. The liquids that form nicer shapes have larger viscosities and tend to freeze more easily while the liquids with stranger shapes tend to take longer to freeze (and in some cases, do not freeze at all!)

I hope that my answer will help you do further research.


I used these sources in my answer.

--Adil Bukhari


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