Freezing point depression can be used to experimentally determine the van't Hoff factor of a solute in solution. Given the data in the table, please answer the questions below to determine the "real" van't Hoff factor of the solute.
Experimental Results
Mass of solvent (water): 6.446 g
Freezing point of water: 0.00°C
Freezing point depression constant (Kf) of water: 1.86°C/m
Mass of solution: 7.174 g
Freezing point of solution: -3.96°C
a. What mass of solute was used? 0.728 g
b. What is the freezing point depression, ΔTf, of the solution? 3.96°C
c. What is the colligative molality, mc, of the solution? 2.13 m
d. How many moles of solute particles are present in solution? moles
e. If the solute has a molar mass of 187.26, what is the van't Hoff factor, i, for the solute? (Remember that experimentally, i does not have to be an integer!) 3.53
Additional Materials
Freezing Point Depression