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An apparent molar property of a solution component in a mixture or solution is a quantity defined with the purpose of isolating the contribution of each component to the non-ideality of the mixture. It shows the change in the corresponding solution property (for example, volume) when all of that component is added to the solution, per mole of component added. It is described as apparent because it appears to represent the molar property of that component in solution, provided that the properties of the other solution components are assumed to remain constant during the addition. However this assumption is often not justified, since the values of apparent molar properties of a component may be quite different from its molar properties in the pure state.
Contents
- Relation to molality
- Relation to partial molar quantities
- Relation to activity coefficient of an electrolyte
- Electrolytes
- Alcohol
- Electrolyte non electrolyte systems
- Multicomponent mixtures or solutions
- References
For instance, the volume of a solution containing two components identified as solvent and solute is given by
where V0 is the volume of the pure solvent before adding the solute and
This equation serves as the definition of
An apparent molar quantity can be similarly defined for the component identified as solvent
Apparent quantities can also be expressed using mass instead of number of moles. This expression produces apparent specific quantities, like the apparent specific volume.
where the specific quantities are denoted with small letters.
Apparent (molar) properties are not constants (even at a given temperature), but are functions of the composition. At infinite dilution, an apparent molar property and the corresponding partial molar property become equal.
Some apparent molar properties that are commonly used are apparent molar enthalpy, apparent molar heat capacity, and apparent molar volume.
Relation to molality
The apparent (molar) volume of a solute can be expressed as a function of the molality b of that solute (and of the densities of the solution and solvent). The volume of solution per mole of solute is
Subtracting the volume of pure solvent per mole of solute gives the apparent molar volume:
Relation to partial (molar) quantities
The relation between partial molar properties and the apparent ones can be derived from the definition of the apparent quantities and of the molality.
Relation to activity coefficient of an electrolyte
The apparent molar volume of a dissolved electrolyte in a concentrated solution can be linked to the statistical component of its activity coefficient:
Electrolytes
The apparent molar volume of a salt is usually less than the molar volume of the solid salt. For instance, solid NaCl has a volume of 27 cm3 per mole, but the apparent molar volume at low concentrations is only 16.6 cc/mole. In fact, some aqueous electrolytes have negative apparent molar volumes: NaOH -6.7, LiOH -6.0, and Na2CO3 -6.7 cm3/mole. This means that their solutions in a given amount of water have a smaller volume than the same amount of pure water. (The effect is small however.) The physical reason is that nearby water molecules are strongly attracted to the ions so that they occupy less space.
Alcohol
Another example of the apparent molar volume of the second component being less than its molar volume as a pure substance is the case of ethanol in water. For example, at 20 mass-percent ethanol, the solution has a volume of 1.0326 litres per kg at 20 °C, while pure water is 1.0018 L/kg (1.0018 cc/g). The apparent volume of the added ethanol is 1.0326 L - 0.8 kg x 1.0018 L/kg = 0.2317 L. The number of moles of ethanol is 0.2 kg / (0.04607 kg/mol) = 4.341 mol, so that the apparent molar volume is 0.2317 L / 4.341 mol = 0.0532 L / mol = 53.2 cc/mole (1.16 cc/g). However pure ethanol has a molar volume at this temperature of 58.4 cc/mole (1.27 cc/g). The nonideality of the solution is reflected by a slight decrease (roughly 2.2%, 1.0326 rather than 1.055 L/kg) in the volume of the combined system upon mixing. As the percent ethanol goes up toward 100%, the apparent molar volume rises to the molar volume of pure ethanol.
Electrolyte - non-electrolyte systems
Apparent quantities can underline interactions in electrolyte - non-electrolyte systems which show interactions like salting in and salting out.
Multicomponent mixtures or solutions
For multicomponent solutions, there definition of apparent molar properties can be stated in several ways. For the volume of a ternary (3-component) solution with one solvent and two solutes as an example, there would still be only one equation
One description of ternary aqueous solutions considers only the weighted mean apparent molar volume of the solutes, defined as
Another method is to treat the ternary system as pseudobinary and define the apparent molar volume of each solute with reference to a binary system containing both other components: water and the other solute. The apparent molar volumes of the two solutes are then
The apparent molar volume of two components or solutes considered as one pseudocomponent
Of course the complement volume of a component in respect to other components of the mixture can be defined as a difference between the volume of the mixture and the volume of a binary submixture of a given composition like:
There are situations when there is no rigorous way to define which is solvent and which is solute like in the case of liquid mixtures (say water and ethanol) that can dissolve or not a solid like sugar or salt. In these cases apparent molar properties can and must be ascribed to all components of the mixture.