The Affect of Solutes on the Specific Heat of Water and How Long it Takes to Boil

Katie Alpert

Introduction:
The property of water studied was its high specific heat. Specific heat is the amount
of heat that it takes to change the temperature of one gram of water by one degree
Celsius. An important quality of water is that it has a very high specific heat, thus it
takes a great amount of heat or energy to cause water to boil. Water is also a
universal solvent so many solutes can dissolve in it. Hydrogen bonds occur because
the negative charge of the oxygen atom of a water molecule is attracted to the
positive charge of a hydrogen atom of a different water molecule. Hydrogen bonds
are weak on their own but because they break and reform so often, they are strong
bonds. Hydrogen bonds cause water to have a high specific heat because the
hydrogen bonds are so strong and difficult to break. The purpose of this experiment
is to discover how solutes affect the boiling point or specific heat of water.
Problem:
Does adding a solute to water change its specific heat or how long it takes for it to
boil?
Hypothesis:
If salt is added to water then the amount of time that it takes to boil and waters
specific heat will decrease. If lactose is added to water then it will increase the
amount of time that it takes to boil and the specific heat.
The Materials Used Include:
5 Thermometers
5 300mL beakers
1000mL water
15g salt
15g Lactose Monohydrate
Burner
Stopwatch
2 Weigh Boats
Scale
Procedure:
1. Fill three beakers with 200mL of water.
2. Label the three beakers control, salt, and lactose.
3. Plug in balance, place weigh boat on scale, and zero scale.
4. Place five grams of salt on the weigh boat.
5. Remove weigh boat from balance and zero scale.

6. Place second weigh boat on scale, zero balance, and measure five grams of
lactose monohydrate on balance.
7. Place five grams of salt in the beaker labeled salt.
8. Place five grams of lactose in the beaker labeled lactose.
9. Do not place any solutes in the third beaker, only 200mL of water, and label
the beaker control.
10. Turn on burner to high heat.
11. Place one thermometer in each beaker and place all of the beakers on the
burner.
12. Using a stopwatch, record the temperature of each beaker every minute.
13. After the beakers boil, remove them from the burner and let them cool.
14. Using two new beakers, fill each with 200mL of water.
15. Measure ten grams of salt place in one of the beakers. Label that beaker Salt
2.
16. Measure ten grams of lactose and place in the other beaker. Label that beaker
Lactose 2.
17. Repeat steps nine through twelve.
Results:
Data Table:
Amount of Time That It Takes for Different Solutions of Water to Boil
Time (Minutes):
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Time (Minutes):
1
2
3
4
5
6

Trial 1 Control
(C):
27
29
34
37
42
48
55
61
66
74
80

Trial 2 Salt (C):

27
31
47
54
70
81
87
85
89
88
94

Trial 4 Salt (C):

36
49
59
75
88
95

Trial 3 Lactose
(C):
27
33
36
48
55
62
70
84
90
100
95

Trial 5 Lactose(C):
39
50
69
78
79
83

7
8
9
10

94
94
95
100

83
90
95
96

Graphs:

6. Analysis
The data revealed that adding salt or lactose to water decreases the amount of time
that it takes for water to boil, and therefore decreases the specific heat of water. As
each solution reached high temperatures, around 90 to 100C, they began to bubble
and boil and steam was released. Water was evaporating and becoming a gas as a
large amount of heat was added to the solutions. The salt water initially increased
temperature more rapidly than the control group and the lactose trial. Towards the
end of the trial, the heat of the water with the lactose surpassed the temperature of
both of the other trials. In the fourth and fifth trials, the lactose solution heated up
quicker than the second trial of the salt until the temperature increase of the salt

surpassed the other. Adding a solute to water causes the solution to heat up faster
than the regular tap water. Both salt and lactose caused water to boil faster than the
control group. Generally, doubling the salt and the lactose caused the solutions to
heat up even faster than the first three trials. In the tenth minute of the second trial
the salt solution was at 88C, however, at the same time for the fourth trial, the
increased salt trial, the solution was at 100C. Additionally, during the ninth minute
of the third trial the solution was at 90C while its counterpart, trial five with the
increased lactose solution, at the same time was at 95C .The independent variable
was the time (minutes) and the dependent variable was the change in temperature
(degrees Celsius).
7. Conclusion/ Implications
The hypothesis was partially correct because the first statement that the salt would
decrease the specific heat of water. However, the second statement, that adding
lactose would increase the amount of time it takes to boil, was not correct. The first
three trials all began at 27 degrees Celsius but within one minute the control group
had increased by two degrees. However, the salt trial increased temperature by four
degrees and the lactose trial reached 33 C. Within the first minute, the temperature
of the two other trials increased more quickly than the control group. Adding a
solute to water causes the specific heat and the boiling point of the solution to
decrease. Adding a solute causes the specific heat to decrease requiring less heat for
the solution to boil. When salt or lactose is added to water, it causes the solution to
take less energy to raise the temperature of the one gram of water by one 1C.
Additionally, the salt or lactose solution takes less time and energy to heat up and
thus reaches its boiling point faster than regular water. This is due to the fact that a
portion of the water in each solution is attracted to the dissolved solute particles so
there are fewer pure water particles available to heat and evaporate. The charges of
hydrogen bonds are attracted to the charges in salt and lactose thus disrupting the
connected hydrogen bonds that cause them to be strong. Hydrogen bonds are weak
on their own but because they reform with multiple different molecules quickly, it
strengthens water. When other particles, such as lactose or sodium chloride
molecules, are added to water they come in between the hydrogen bonds and
ultimately weaken them. The weakened bonds decrease the specific heat of the
solution because they break more easily causing the water to boil more quickly and
using less energy. Adding a solute that has a high attraction to hydrogen bonds to
water causes the specific heat of the solution to decrease and causing the solution to
boil more quickly. Additionally, the evaporative cooling caused some of the
solutions decreased in temperature slightly during the trials. When the water began
to boil, some of the particles evaporated and escaped as gas. The hottest particles of
the solution left the beaker, leaving behind the cooler particles. This caused the
temperature of the solution to decrease slightly, and then it was able to continue to
heat up to an even higher temperature. Out of this research one could test what
solutes would make the specific heat of water increase.

8. Sources of Error
One source of error was that for the fourth and fifth trial the burner was still hot
from the previous trials. The second salt trial began at 36 C and the lactose trial
began at 39C. The two trials began at a greater temperature than the first three
trials, and they even started at different temperatures as each other. This may have
caused the solutions to heat up faster because the burner did not begin at room
temperature as it had for the first three trials. The beakers and the thermometers
were unused for each trial so they all began at room temperature.