MELTING POINT AND COOLING CURVE OF A SOLID MATERIAL

OBJECTIVE:

1) To draw the cooling curve of a solid material.

2) To determine the melting point of Vegetable Ghee.

THEORY:

The melting temperature of any pure material (a one-component system) at constant

pressure is a single unique temperature. The liquid and solid phases exist together in
equilibrium only at this temperature. When cooled, the temperature of the molten
material will steadily decrease until the melting point is reached.

At this point the material will start to crystallise, leading to the evolution of latent heat
at the solid liquid interface, maintaining a constant temperature across the material.
Once solidification is complete, steady cooling resumes. The arrest in cooling during
solidification allows the melting point of the material to be identified on a time-
temperature curve.

Most systems consisting of two or more components exhibit a temperature range over
which the solid and liquid phases are in equilibrium. Instead of a single melting
temperature, the system now has two different temperatures, the liquidus temperature
and the solidus temperature which are needed to describe the change from liquid to
solid.

The liquidus temperature is the temperature above which the system is entirely liquid,
and the solidus is the temperature below which the system is completely solid. Between
these two points the liquid and solid phases are in equilibrium. When the liquidus
temperature is reached, solidification begins and there is a reduction in cooling rate

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caused by latent heat evolution and a consequent reduction in the gradient of the
cooling curve.

A cooling curve is actually a line graph representing the change in the state of matter of
a substance, either from solid to liquid or liquid to solid. In this graph, time is usually
represented on the x - axis and temperature on the y - axis. The particles in the ghee in
the solid state slowly start to get more energy when heated and start to move more
rapidly ata certain temperature and then change to liquid. When it has to change
from liquid tosolid, the particles in the Vegetable Ghee start to lose energy and come
close together till theybecome solid. In this experiment the temperature is expected
to drop dramatically at firstas the liquid cools, then to remain constant for a while
when the substance reaches its melting point, and then to drop slowly as the
thermometer cools to room temperature

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PROCEDURE:

1- Melt the Vegetable Ghee in a warm water bath.

2- Heat the water bath either by using a heating plate or a Bunsen burner.
3- Keep an eye on the temperature of the Vegetable Ghee and continuously view
thermometer reading.
4- You will note that after some time, Vegetable Ghee in the boiling tube begins to
melt. As the temperature increases to about 90 0C, entire Vegetable Ghee would
have melted. Stop heating and carefully take the boiling tube out of the water
bath. Make sure that it does not spill out.
5- Fix it on another retort stand, as shown in Fig. 8.3b and allow it to cool.
6- When the Vegetable Ghee is melted entirely, remove it from the bath, dry it and
then bury it in sand. Record the temperature each 30 seconds while the liquid is
converting to solid. Atthe same time watch for constant temperature at which there
was both liquid and solid present.
7- Plot temperature versus time graph. Which parameter will you take along y-axis
and which one along x-axis? From your +2 classes you may recall that we plot
independent variable along x-axis and dependent variable

Melting point

Time (s)

8- Do you obtain a horizontal portion? If not, discuss with your counsellor.

The horizontal line corresponds to constant temperature corresponding to
phase transition.

9- If you extend the horizontal part parallel to time-axis to meet the - , h

point where it meets y
substance.

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Observation Table 8.1: Temperature of Vegetable Ghee as a function of time
Least count of thermometer = ………….0C
Least count of stop watch = s

S.No Time Temperature of Ghee

(s) (0C)

1.

3.

4.

5.