What is the difference between melting and dissolving

In order to dissolve something there needs to be two substances- a solute and a solvent :. A solute is a solid that dissolves and a solvent is the liquid it has dissolved in. A mixture called a solution is made when a solid disappears into a liquid.

When the substance dissolves the solution is transparent. The solution could be of a color. If it is not transparent see-through , it is not a real solution. If the Gibbs Free Energy value is negative, then the process or reaction is spontaneous at the temperature given.

So, the answer to which would be the preferred process would also depend on entropy considerations. To summarize the differences and similarities, here is a list I will update the list, if new comments arrive :.

No, it is not always exothermic. Yes, it always is except for the exception F'x gave. This is because during melting the body to be melted takes in "latent heat of fusion" from the surroundings, thus bringing down the temperature. The latent heat of fusion is required to break the intermolecular attraction forces that define a solid. Breaking such bonds requires energy, hence the reaction is endothermic.

Lower alcohols like methanol and ethanol may be able to dissolve ice. They can effectively form hydrogen-bonds with water, but higher alcohols may not be able to do that. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What is the difference between melting and dissolving? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 6 months ago. Active 6 years ago. Viewed 22k times. I am looking some general features. I am now assuming that the ice is dissolving and melting at the same time. Improve this question. Nick T 2, 1 1 gold badge 18 18 silver badges 31 31 bronze badges.

Juha Juha 3 3 gold badges 10 10 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. Melting and dissolution are two very different physicochemical processes: for one thing, melting is a pure-component equilibrium between the solid phase and liquid phase of the same component, while dissolution involves a solid and a solvent, which is a different chemical compounds. As it currently is, I'm afraid your question is too broad… Could you read up a bit on both melting and dissolution, and edit it to something more specific?

In other words, the only difference between melting and dissolving is that the substances are different. Helium-4 also has a very slightly negative enthalpy of fusion below 0. This means that, at appropriate constant pressures, these substances freeze with the addition of heat. In short, for a chemist: melting is endothermic.

Show 2 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Unless you had a saturated or nearly saturated solution. This is actually a pretty huge difference and would potentially affect all of the physical and chemical properties. Dissolving a solid can be either endo- or exo-thermic. Similarities : In each case, forces between the particles that comprise the solid are disrupted and that takes energy. Students can then dissolve substances in solvents other than water, such as eucalyptus oil and acetone nail polish remover.

This can be linked to the use of cleaning products around the house, which are designed to dissolve fats and oils. In order to consider the reverse of dissolving, pour small amounts of concentrated solutions like copper sulphate, salty water or shellac in methylated spirits into saucers and leave to evaporate.

Students can observe the changes over time. Using the technique of Predict-Observe-Explain ask students to predict what will happen to the weight of the water when sugar is dissolved.

Record changes in weight when sugar is added to water and stirred to dissolve. You can show that the resulting solution has the same weight as the sugar and water separately. In order to consider the reverse of dissolving, students could undertake a research project to find out how table salt is commercially produced. This will help them to identify some of the differences between melting and dissolving.

Some other projects student could explore include glass blowing and the production of silver jewellery. Our website uses a free tool to translate into other languages. This tool is a guide and may not be accurate. For more, see: Information in your language. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page.