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| solution chemistry definition |
In chemistry, a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances in relative amounts that can constantly evolve up to the so-called solubility limit. The liquid state of matter is commonly called the term solution, gases and solids are solvable.Air, for example, is a solution composed primarily of oxygen and nitrogen with traces of many other gases, and copper is a solution composed of copper and zinc.
A brief treatment of solutions follows. For the full treatment, see Liquid: Solutions and Dissolutio
Figure 1: Phase diagram of argon.
Learn more about this topic Liquid : solutions and solubility The ability of liquids to dissolve solids, liquids or other gases has long been recognized as one of the fundamental phenomena of nature... Vital processes depend largely on solutions.
The processes of life depend largely on solutions. Oxygen in the lungs dissolves in blood plasma, combines chemically with hemoglobin in red blood cells, and is released into the body's tissues.v The ability of liquids to dissolve other liquids or solids has many practical applications. Chemists take advantage of differences in solubility to separate and purify substances and perform chemical analyses. Most chemical reactions occur in solution and are affected by the solubility of the reactants. Materials in chemical manufacturing equipment are selected to resist the melting action of their contents.
v If both components are liquid, the distinction loses its meaning; a lower concentration is likely to be called a solute. The concentration of any component in a solution can be expressed in units of weight, volume or moles. They can be mixed, for example, in moles per liter and moles per kilogram.
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Crystals of some salts contain ionic lattices, that is, atoms or groups of atoms with alternating positive and negative charges. When such a crystal is dissolved, the attraction of oppositely charged ions, largely responsible for cohesion in the crystal, must be overcome by the electrical charges of the solvent. This can be provided by molten salt ions or by electrodes in solvent molecules. These solvents include water, methyl alcohol, liquid ammonia and hydrogen fluoride. The solute ions, surrounded by dipolar molecules of the solvent, separate from each other and are free to migrate to the charged electrodes. . This solution is called electrolyte and can conduct electricity. .
. The energy of potential attraction between simple non-polar (non-electrolytic) molecules is short-lived; it decreases by about the seventh power of the distance between them. For electrolytes, the energy of attraction and repulsion of charged ions decreases only as the strength of the first distance.As a result, their solutions have completely different properties from those of a non-electrolyte.
It is generally assumed that all gases are completely miscible (mutually soluble in all proportions), but this is only true at normal pressures. At elevated pressures, chemically dissimilar pairs of gases may exhibit only limited mixing. Many different metals are miscible in the liquid state, sometimes forming recognizable compounds. Some are similar enough to form solid solutions (see Alloy).
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