FACTORS AFFECTING SOLUBILITY

Solubility

Solubility is the maximum amount of a substance that will dissolve in a given amount of solvent
at a specific temperature. There are two direct factors that affect solubility: temperature and
pressure. Temperature affects the solubility of both solids and gases, but pressure only affects the
solubility of gases. Surface area does not affect how much of a solute will be dissolved, but it is a
factor in how quickly or slowly the substance will dissolve. In this section, we will explore all
three of these factors and how they affect the solubility of solids and gases.

The Effect of Temperature on Solubility

Temperature has a direct effect on solubility. For the majority of ionic solids, increasing the
temperature increases how quickly the solution can be made. As the temperature increases, the
particles of the solid move faster, which increases the chances that they will interact with more
of the solvent particles. This results in increasing the rate at which a solution occurs.

Temperature can also increase the amount of solute that can be dissolved in a solvent. Generally
speaking, as the temperature is increased, more solute particles will be dissolved. For instance,
when you add table sugar to water, a solution is quite easily made. When you heat that solution
and keep adding sugar, you find that large amounts of sugar can be added as the temperature
keeps rising. The reason this occurs is because as the temperature increases, the intermolecular
forces can be more easily broken, allowing more of the solute particles to be attracted to the
solvent particles. There are other examples, though, where increasing the temperature has very
little effect on how much solute can be dissolved. Table salt is a good example: you can dissolve
just about the same amount of table salt in ice water as you can in boiling water.

For all gases, as the temperature increases, the solubility decreases. The kinetic molecular theory
can be used to explain this phenomenon. As the temperature increases, the gas molecules move
faster and are then able to escape from the liquid. The solubility of the gas, then, decreases.

The Effect of Pressure on Solubility

The second factor, pressure, affects the solubility of a gas in a liquid but never of a solid
dissolving in a liquid. When pressure is applied to a gas that is above the surface of a solvent, the
gas will move into the solvent and occupy some of the spaces between the particles of the
solvent. A good example is carbonated soda. Pressure is applied to force the CO2 molecules into
the soda. The opposite is also true. When the gas pressure is decreased, the solubility of that gas
is also decreased. When you open a can of carbonated beverage, the pressure in the soda is
lowered, so the gas immediately starts leaving the solution. The carbon dioxide stored in the soda
is released, and you can see the fizzing on the surface of the liquid. If you leave an open can of
soda out for a period of time, you may notice the beverage becoming flat because of the loss of
carbon dioxide.
This gas pressure factor is expressed in Henry’s law. Henry’s law states that, at a given
temperature, the solubility of a gas in a liquid is proportional to the partial pressure of the gas
above the liquid. An example of Henry’s Law occurs in scuba diving. As a person dives into
deep water, the pressure increases and more gases are dissolved into the blood. While ascending
from a deep-water dive, the diver needs to return to the surface of the water at a very slow rate to
allow for all of the dissolved gases to come out of the blood very slowly. If a person ascends too
quickly, a medical emergency may occur due to the gases coming out of blood too quickly. This
is called having the “bends.”