Unit 7: Chemicals in a Physical Sense

Topics:
 Three states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and their general properties
 Phase changes
 Changes in energy involved in phase changes
o heat of fusion (ΔHfus) and heat of vaporization (ΔHvap)
o heating and cooling curves
 Changes in disorder involved in phase changes (entropy and ΔS)
 The factors which affect state and properties: strength of intermolecular forces,
temperature, pressure
 Phase diagrams (critical point, triple point, melting point, boiling point, normal melting
point, normal boiling point)
 Types of intermolecular forces (dipole-dipole, H-bonding, London/dispersion)
o Revisit molecular structure (VSEPR, polarity)
o Determining polarity: electronegativity, dipoles, and shapes
 Effects of polarity: "like mixes with like"
 Properties of liquids (surface tension, viscosity, evaporation, vapor pressure, and boiling
point)
 Solids: types of solids and differences between them
 How things work: sweating, outdoor air conditioning, "sweating" glass, fogging windows,
seeing breath on a cold day, floating of ice, filling a glass above its rim with water,
animals walking on water, gore-tex fabric, boiled foods taking longer to cook at high
altitudes, pressure cookers, air conditioners, freeze-drying, etc…

Objectives:
You should be able to:
 distinguish between intermolecular forces (IMFs) and intramolecular forces (chemical
bonds)
 describe the types and relative strengths of the intermolecular forces
 identify the IMFs involved among particles of particular substances
 explain the bulk properties of liquids determined by intermolecular forces (viscosity,
surface tension, adhesion, cohesion, capillary action, polarity)
 compare the properties of the three states of matter (shape, volume, arrangement of
particles, interaction between particles, movement of particles)
 define the (6) phase changes
 identify the energy changes accompanying each phase change – is it endothermic (ΔH =
+) or exothermic (ΔH = –)
 identify the entropy changes accompanying each phase change – is it getting more
disordered (ΔS = +) or less disordered (ΔH = -)
 define the heat of fusion (ΔHfus), heat of vaporization (ΔHvap), and heat of sublimation
(ΔHsub), and compare the relative amounts of each for a particular substance
 sketch and/or extract information from a heating/cooling curve: identify regions
corresponding to kinetic energy changes, potential energy changes, and phase changes.
 calculate energy (q) associated with different segments of a heating curve

Chemistry Raleigh Charter High School Dr. Genez

Unit 7: Chemicals in a Physical Sense

 distinguish between “boiling” and “evaporation”

 define vapor pressure of liquids and explain its relationship to temperature and IMFs
 interpret vapor pressure curves of liquids: identify and compare graphed vapor pressure-
temperature relationships among substances (determine BP, normal BP, and compare
volatility and IMFs)
 define normal BP and normal MP for a substance; determine these quantities from
graphed data
 understand the relationship between atmospheric pressure (Patm) and the vapor pressure
and boiling point of a substance
 interpret the phase diagram of a substance: identify the regions corresponding to each
state of matter, identify the equilibrium boundaries between each pair of states of
matter (l↔g, s↔l, s↔g); identify and determine triple point, critical point, and normal
boiling (melting) point; determine phase changes associated with specific changes in the
temperature and pressure conditions for a substance

Introduction:
We have written many balanced chemical equations and we have always included the
physical states of the chemicals involved. Chemists are most interested in the chemical
properties of the atoms and their compounds, but their physical condition is very important to
how they behave. The physical states of matter all around you are easily observable. You can
see that a rock is solid, water is usually liquid, and oxygen is a gas. You have observed
substances change physical states in processes we call melting, evaporation, etc. The goal of
this unit is to understand why substances are found in the physical state they are in and why
they sometimes change into a different state. We have already learned how ionic compounds
arrange into crystal structures whereby oppositely charged ions surround one another in a
regular, repeating pattern and no two ions represent a "molecule". All ionic substances are solid
crystals at normal conditions. True “molecules” are made of covalently bonded atoms whereby
the atoms in one molecule are held together by strong covalent bonds but there is no covalent
bond to the neighboring molecule. Molecules occur in separate, distinct packages as opposed
to the continuous network of ionic bonds that hold all the ions in a crystal of salt. Molecules are
only weakly attracted to one another so many molecules can change physical state rather easily.
We will be studying molecules in the gas, liquid, and solid (crystalline) states.

What factors should we explore???

1.

2.

3.

Chemistry Raleigh Charter High School Dr. Genez