The liquid state of matter is an intermediate phase between solid and gas.

Like the
particles of a solid, particles in a liquid are subject to intermolecular attraction; however,
liquid particles have more space between them, so they are not fixed in position. The
attraction between the particles in a liquid keeps the volume of the liquid constant.

The movement of the particles causes the liquid to be variable in shape. Liquids will flow
and fill the lowest portion of a container, taking on the shape of the container but not
changing in volume. The limited amount of space between particles means that liquids
have only very limited compressibility.

Cohesion and adhesion

Cohesion is the tendency for the same kind of particles to be attracted to one another.
This cohesive "stickiness" accounts for the surface tension of a liquid. Surface tension
can be thought of as a very thin "skin" of particles that are more strongly attracted to
each other than they are to the particles surrounding them. As long as these forces of
attraction are undisturbed, they can be surprisingly strong. For example, the surface
tension of water is great enough to support the weight of an insect such as a water
skipper. Water is the most cohesive nonmetallic liquid, according to the U.S. Geological
Survey.

Cohesive forces are greatest beneath the surface of the liquid, where the particles are
attracted to each other on all sides. Particles at the surface are more strongly attracted
to the identical particles within the liquid than they are to the surrounding air. This
accounts for the tendency of liquids to form spheres, the shape with the least amount of
surface area. When these liquid spheres are distorted by gravity, they form the classic
raindrop shape.

Adhesion is when forces of attraction exist between different types of particles. Particles
of a liquid will not only be attracted to one another, but they are generally attracted to
the particles that make up the container holding the liquid. Particles of the liquid are
drawn up above the surface level of the liquid at the edges where they are in contact
with the sides of the container.

The combination of cohesive and adhesive forces means that a slight concave curve,
known as the meniscus, exists at the surface of most liquids. The most accurate
measurement of the volume of a liquid in a graduated cylinder will be observed by
looking at the volume marks closest to the bottom of this meniscus.

Adhesion also accounts for capillary action when a liquid is drawn up into a very narrow
tube. One example of capillary action is when someone collects a sample of blood by
touching a tiny glass tube to the blood droplet on the tip of a pricked finger.
Viscosity
Viscosity is a measure of how much a liquid resists flowing freely. A liquid that flows
very slowly is said to be more viscous than a liquid that flows easily and quickly. A
substance with low viscosity is considered to be thinner than a substance with higher
viscosity, which is usually thought of as being thicker. For example, honey is more
viscous than water. Honey is thicker than water and flows more slowly. Viscosity can
usually be reduced by heating the liquid. When heated, the particles of the liquid move
faster, allowing the liquid to flow more easily.
Evaporation
Because the particles of a liquid are in constant motion, they will collide with one
another, and with the sides of the container. Such collisions transfer energy from one
particle to another. When enough energy is transferred to a particle at the surface of the
liquid, it will eventually overcome the surface tension holding it to the rest of the liquid.
Evaporation occurs when surface particles gain enough kinetic energy to escape the
system. As the faster particles escape, the remaining particles have lower average
kinetic energy, and the temperature of the liquid cools. This phenomenon is known as
evaporative cooling.
Volatility
Volatility can be thought of as how likely a substance will be to vaporize at normal
temperatures. Volatility is more often a property of liquids, but some highly volatile
solids may sublime at normal room temperature. Sublimation happens when a
substance passes directly from solid to gas without passing through the liquid state.

When a liquid evaporates inside a closed container, the particles cannot escape the
system. Some of the evaporated particles will eventually come into contact with the
remaining liquid and lose enough of their energy to condense back into the liquid. When
the rate of evaporation and the rate of condensation are the same, there will be no net
decrease in the amount of liquid.

The pressure exerted by the vapor/liquid equilibrium in the closed container is called
the vapor pressure. Increasing the temperature of the closed system will increase the
vapor pressure, according to Purdue University's department of chemistry. Substances
with high vapor pressures can form a high concentration of gas particles above the
liquid in a closed system. This can be a fire hazard if the vapor is flammable. Any small
spark, even one occurring from the friction between the gas particles themselves, can
be enough to cause a catastrophic fire or even an explosion. The U.S. Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires Material Safety and Data Sheets to
give information about the volatility and flammability of liquids in order to help prevent
accidents from occurring.

What is Vaporization?

Vaporization is the process of converting a liquid into a gas. It is also called

evaporation. Since we know that the particles of a gas are moving faster than those of
a liquid, an input of energy must be required for a liquid to become a gas. The most
common way to add energy to a liquid system is by adding heat.
As a liquid gains energy, the molecules begin to move around faster. If a molecule is on
the surface of the liquid, and has enough energy, it can break free and become a gas
molecule. As with anything in chemistry, or life for that matter, there are other factors
that determine how easily a molecule can break free from the liquid. We just discussed
some of them: intermolecular forces.

The stronger the intermolecular forces that are holding a liquid together, the more
energy that will be required to pull them apart. What this means in practicle terms is
that a liquid with strong intermolecular forces will have to be heated to a higher
temperature before it will evaporate.

For example: Look at Methane (CH4 M.W. 16 g/mol) and Water (H2O 18 g/mol). Their
molecular weights are very similar, but their Heats of Vaporization (how much heat per
mole that has to be added to make them evaporate) are very different. Water has
a DHvap of 40.7 kJ/mol and Methane has a DHvap of 8.2 kJ/mol. Methane is actually a gas
at room temperature because of its low heat of vaporization.

What is condensation?

Well, the opposite of vaporization, of course. The process by which a gas changes
phases into a liqud. And if you must add energy/heat a liquid to convert it to a gas,
then you must remove energy from or cool a gas to convert it into a liquid. Make
sense? Yes. What else makes sense is that the amount of energy required to go from
gas to liquid phase would be the same as that required to go from liquid to gas, just
opposite in sign. So the Heat of Vaporization is the same for both processes, just
positive (endogonic/endothermic) for evaporation and negative (exergonic/exothermic)
for condensation.

Another property that affects the value of the DHvap is the molecular weight or size of
the molecule. This is generally because you have more surface (London Force)
interactions between larger molecules than small and the density of a larger molecule is
generally greater than that of a small molecule. Remember, that to become airborne a
molecule must have a lower density than the air molecules around it. So as a general
trend, as the MW/size of a molecule increases so will the DHvap. Exceptions in the trend
will occur when a small molecule is capable of a stronger intermolecular force, E.g. HF
versus HBr. HF hydrogen bonds and thus has a higher DHvap.

So now that you know all about what a DHvap is, why the heck do we care about it?
Well, here is a real life use for this value that is important to us all: fingernail polish
drying times. For fingernail polishes, if you want the polish to dry faster, you use a
solvent that has a lower DHvap. For example: Table 2 lits some of the more common
solvents used in fingernail polishes. Methyl Acetate is the preferred solvent for most.
This is because not only is it fast drying, it is also somewhat water soluble.

Another simple example of how to use the value is determing how much heat it will
take to boil water out of a pot? The DHvap for water is 40.7 kJ/mol. If your pot contains
2.2 liters of water and we assume the density of the water is ~1g/mL then the mass of
the water in the pot is 2.2 x 103 grams. The molecular weight of water is 18.0 g/mol so
this means we have 2.2 x 103 grams/18.0g/mol = 122.2 moles of water. We can now
use the 40.7 kJ/mol factor to show that it will take 122.2 mol x 40.7 kJ/mol = 4974.4
kJ of energy to evaporate all of the water in the pot.

What if we take it one step further? Let's combine some concepts we learned in
CHM1045 with the concept we just discussed and solve the following problem: How
much heat energy is required to convert
5.00 kg of ice at 0°C, into 5.00 kg of steam at 100.°C?
What do we need to calculate? First we need convert the ice from solid to liquid using
the Enthalpy of Fusion (a value just like the Heat of Vaporization that measures the
amount of heat required to convert a substance from solid to liquid) and then we need
to heat the material from 0 up to 100 degrees and finally, we need to convert it from
liquid to gas using the Heat of Vaporization.

So now we know the three steps to take, we need to collect our conversion factors to
use:

Step 1: Melt the solid ice, for this we need to know the DHfus of the ice which is 335
kJ/kg. So we can simply multiply the number of kg in our

Step 2: We need to heat the liquid water from 0 to 100 degrees Celsius. The energy (q)
required to do this can be calculated using q= mcDT, where m is the mass of the
water, DT is the Change in temperatue and c is the specific heat of water (a CHM1045
concept that descibes how much heat energy a substance can absorb before it rises in
temperature one degree). The specific heat of water is 4.19 J/goC .

Step 3: Convert the liquid water into vapor at 100 oC. For this we use the Heat of
Vaporization as we did above. (Note: If you convert the units of the DHVap from kJ/mol
to kJ/kg you get ~2300 kJ/kg)
What is Vapor Pressure?

Vapor pressure is a measurable quantity that exists when a liquid and its vapor are in
equilibrium. This is only possible in closed systems. But please note that the earth's
atmosphere is considered a closed system. On a much smaller scale this would be when
you place any liquid into a sealed container. The molecules at the surface of the liquid
would be changing into gas phase molecules and returning to the liquid until an
equilibrium was reached. This is what we call a "dynamic equilibrium". As molecules
from the liquid move into the gas phase within the container, this increases the
pressure above the liquid. A measure of this pressure (minus the normal atmospheric
pressure) gives us the vapor pressure of the liquid. The higher this pressure, the
more volatile a liquid is said to be. Vapor pressure is also dependent on the
temperature of the system. The liquid will still have a heat of vaporization to contend
with so the equilibrium vapor pressure will increase at higher temperatures.( And
anyone who has ever microwaved their lunch in a closed tuperware container knows
what will happen if the pressure or temperature gets too high, don't they?)

Practical use of the vapor pressure numbers:

You are going away for the weekend and you want to make sure you leave enough
water in the cage for your bird so it doesn't die of thirst while you are gone. If your
dorm room has an average temperature of 21oC how many liters of water should you
put out to be sure some remains for the entire weekend?

Well, at 21oC the vapor pressure of water is ~18 mmHg. If we assume your dorm room
has a volume of about 5.0 x 104 L, we can use the ideal gas law to determine how
much water will evaporate and just make sure more than that is available for the bird.

49.09 moles of water is only about 883 g of water or ~883 mL so if we leave anything
in excess of this for the bird it won't evaporate and the bird will be fine!

A couple of things to note about the calculation above: 1) If the room were bigger,
more water would need to evaporate before the equilibrium vapor pressure was met
and 2) if the temperature was higher in the room the equilibrium vapor pressure would
be higher as well. Vapor pressure is temperature dependent!

So for practical use, we would need to know how the vapor pressure changed with
temperature (that way you can leave your bird at someone else's house, yeah! even if
their place doesn't have air conditioning). Unfortunately, we quickly see that most
vapor pressure relationships with temperature are not linear, which makes predictions
difficult if not impossible. Boo!
Never fear, Clausius-Clapeyron is here! A German and Frenchman walked into a bar...
uh no, that is another story. Anyway, A German Physicist named Clausius got together
with a French physicist named Clapeyron and devised a neat little equation that
converts the non-linear relationship between vapor pressure and temperature into a
linear one using the pressures and temperatures of a substance at two points.

The Clausius-Clapeyron Equation:

Basically, you can use this equation for a number of different purposes: 1) You can
calculate the Heat of Vaporization for a substance by measuring its temperature and
pressure twice. 2) You can determine the vapor pressure of a substance at any
temperature as long as you know it DHvap and the temperature and pressure at another
point.

The biggest problem students have with this equation is their inability to complete the
mathematical manipulations that go along with its solutions. In order to practice some
problems, click here.

And a few more definitions:

Boiling Points:
The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which the liquid will convert to a
gas. If the atmospheric pressure at this temperature is given as 1 atmosphere or 760
mmHg, then this temperature is called the normal boiling point of the liquid. Boiling
points are therefore pressure dependent. (The lower the atmospheric pressure, the
lower the boiling point and vice versa). This is because the atmospheric pressure is
what is pushing against the surface of the liquid and keeping the liquid down. When the
vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to or greater than the atmospheric pressure,
boiling will occur (or in other words vapor will form) and the gas phase molecules will
escape from the surface of the liquid (you see this as bubbles).

Critical Temperature and Pressure:

The temperature and pressure at which the line between liquid and gas phase blurs is
called the critical temperature and critical pressure, respectively. At very high
temperatures and pressures the properties of a substance resemble those of both a
liquid and a gas.

Supercritical Fluids:

A Super Critical Fluid (SCF) is defined as a substance above its critical temperature (TC)
and critical pressure (PC). The critical point represents the highest temperature and
pressure at which the substance can exist as a vapour and liquid in equilibrium. The
phenomenon can be easily explained with reference to the phase diagram for pure
carbon dioxide (Figure below). This figure shows the areas where carbon dioxide exists
as a gas, liquid, solid or as a SCF. The curves represent the temperatures and
pressures where two phases coexist in equilibrium (at the triple point, the three phases
co-exist). The gas-liquid coexistence curve is known as the boiling curve. If we move
upwards along the boiling curve, increasing both temperature and pressure, then the
liquid becomes less dense due to thermal expansion and the gas becomes more dense
as the pressure rises. Eventually, the densities of the two phases converge and become
identical, the distinction between gas and liquid disappears, and the boiling curve
comes to an end at the critical point. The critical point for carbon dioxide occurs at a
pressure of 73.8 bar and a temperature of 31.1°C.
Surface Tension:

Molecules on the surface of a liquid are held to the liquid by the intermolecular
attractions from the molecules below and beside them. Surface tension has units of
erg/cm2 or dyne/cm. It arises because atoms on the surface are missing bonds. Energy
is released when bonds are formed, so the most stable low energy configuration has
the fewest missing bonds. Surface tension therefore tries to minimize the surface area,
resulting in liquids forming spherical droplets and allowing insects to walk on the
surface without sinking.
Capillary Action:

Capillary action is a physical effect caused by the interactions of a liquid with the walls
of a thin tube. The capillary effect is a function of the ability of the liquid to wet a
particular material. The liquid for which this effect is most commonly seen is water,
because water is capable of strong surface interactions and because water is
ubiquitous.

Water climbs up a thin glass tube because of the

strong hydrogen-bonding interactions between the
water and the oxygens (and terminal hydrogens) at
the surface of the glass (SiO2; surface oxygens are
typically bonded to hydrogen). The energetic gain
from the new intermolecular interactions must be
balanced against gravity, which attempts to pull the
liquid back down. Therefore, the narrower the tube,
the higher the liquid will climb, because a narrow
column of liquid weighs less than a thick one.

This is the process by which plants absorb moisture

from the soil.

Viscosity:

Viscosity is an internal property of a fluid that offers resistance to flow.

Properties of a Liquid:
1. A liquid has a definite volume.

Reason: Intermolecular force of attraction is just strong enough to confine the molecules in a definite
space.

2. A liquid has no definite shape and acquires the shape of the container. It can flow from a higher
lever to a lower level.
 Reason: Intermolecular force of attraction is weaker in a liquid than in a solid. Liquid molecules can
move, slip and slide over each other because their molecular separation is larger. The liquid acquires
the shape of the container.

3. Reason: Intermolecular force of attraction is weaker but molecular speed is greater in a liquid than
in a solid. The effect of attraction confines the molecules whereas the effect of speed makes the
molecules fly apart. The combined effect of these two factors is such that a liquid has a surface which
depends on the shape of the container.

4. A liquid is compressible.

Reason: Distance between the neighboring molecules is larger in a liquid than in a solid.

5. A liquid can diffuse into another liquid, but this is much slower as compared to the diffusion of
gases.

Reason: Molecules move faster in a liquid than in a solid but slower as compared to the molecules of a
gas.

6. A liquid on heating changes into its gaseous state.

Reason: Heating increases the intermolecular separation of the liquid molecules but decreases their
intermolecular force of attraction. On cooling, vapours lose heat and are converted into liquid.

All liquids show the following characteristics:

 Liquids are almost incompressible. ...
 Liquids have fixed volume but no fixed shape.They have fixed volume but they do not
have fixed or definite shape. ...
 Liquids flow from higher to lower level.
 Liquids have their boiling points above room temperature, under normal conditions.