Hi welcome to a quick tutorial on solutions - unsaturated, saturated, and supersaturated.
How do I tell them apart?
Here we have an unsaturated solution.Our unsaturated solution is capable of dissolving more solute.
You can keep adding solute to this and it still has the ability to make that solute
dissolve.
In an unsaturated solution, all the solute that's in there is dissolved.
That means what?
That means no chunks, and no grit in the bottom.
Every single piece of solute in that unsaturated solution is dissolved.Here we have a saturated
solution.
It can not dissolve any more solute.
But, how did the saturated solution look?
Well, here's the weird part.
In a saturated solution, all the solute is dissolved.Which means it looks the same as
the saturated right at the point of saturation.
Where the saturated solution is going to look different is when we add more solute to it.
If we add more solute to a saturated solution, this will result in undissolved particles.
In other words, we'll have chunks in the solutions, or we'll have grit in the bottom.
That's where a saturated solution begins to look different from an unsaturated solution.
Okay, so let's check our understanding.
Okay, so here's a quick rundown.
In an unsaturated solution, it CAN dissolve more solute.So when you add solute it doesn't
change the appearance up to the point of saturation.
It may look cloudy for a while, but if you keep stirring, it's going to all dissolve.
In a saturated solution, you cannot dissolve any more solute therefor when you add solute
it's going to change appearance.
You'll see chunks or grit.
Now, no matter how long you stir a saturated solution, if you don't change the temperature,
those chunks or grit are not going to go away.
One more way to tell you got a saturated solution: you have reached the saturation point.
Supersaturation?!
OH NO!
One more term!
Let's look carefully at what supersaturation really means.
Let's say that I have a solution that's saturated at 10 degrees C. I've got all the solute in
there that the solution can possibly dissolve.
It can't take another molecule.
Well, what if I heat the solution to 30 degrees C?
And now, it's got a larger capacity for dissolving solute.
So, I add some solute.
I add enough solute to make this solution a saturated solution at 30 degrees C.
This solution at 30 degrees C, that saturated, has more solute in it than it did at 10 degrees.
Okay, so far so good.
Two saturated solutions.
Where does the supersaturation come in?
If I can cool that solution from 30 degrees back down to 10 degrees and no solute precipitates
out, then I have a supersaturated solution.
So again, if I can take that saturated solution, raise it to a higher temerature, add more
solute, make it saturated again (but with a higher amount of solute), and then cool
it back to its original tempersture without any solute precipitaiing out, we now DA DA!
have a supersaturated solution.
If solute precipitates out when you cool the solution back down, it is not supersaturated.
It's just a saturated solution with some chunks on the bottom.
So, if we go through that scenario again, and we take our saturated solution at 10,
heat it to 30, and add more solute, and then cool it back down to 10, but in this case
the solute precipitates out, we do not have a supersaturated solution.
( sad noise sound) We just have a plain old boring saturated solution with some chunks.
I hope that helped you understand unsaturated, saturated, and supersaturated solutions.
If not, email with questions!
Have a good night!