freezing point

freezing point, temperature at which a liquid becomes a solid. As with the melting point, increased pressure usually raises the freezing point. The freezing point is lower than the melting point in the case of mixtures and for certain organic compounds such as fats. As a mixture freezes, the solid that forms first usually has a composition different from that of the liquid, and formation of the solid changes the composition of the remaining liquid, usually in a way that steadily lowers the freezing point. This principle is used in purifying mixtures, successive melting and freezing gradually separating the components. The heat of fusion (see thermal fusion), the heat that must be applied to melt a solid, must be removed from the liquid to freeze it. Some liquids can be supercooled—i.e., cooled below the freezing point—without solid crystals forming. Putting a seed crystal into a supercooled liquid triggers freezing, whereupon the release of the heat of fusion raises the temperature rapidly to the freezing point.

The addition of one mole (molecular weight in grams) of any nonionic (does not form ions) solute to 1,000 grams of water lowers the freezing point of the water by 1.885 °C, and this has been used as an accurate method for determining molecular weights.