Partial molal volume definition

Because of their rigid cell walls, large hydrostatic pressures can exist in plant cells, whereas hydrostatic pressures in animal cells generally are relatively small. Hydrostatic pressures are involved in plant support and also are important for the movement of water and solutes in the xylem and in the phloem. The effect of pressure on the chemical potential of water is expressed by the term VWP (see Eq. 2.4), where Vw is the partial molal volume of water and P is the hydrostatic pressure in the aqueous solution in excess of the ambient atmospheric pressure. The density of water is about 1000 kg m-3 (1 g cm-3) therefore, when 1 mol or 18.0 x 10-3 kg of water is added to water, the volume increases by 18.0 x 10-6 m3. Using the definition ofV,., as a partial derivative (see Eq. 2.6), we need to add only an infinitesimally small amount of water (dnw) and then observe the infinitesimal change in volume of the system (dV). We thus find that Vw for pure water is 18.0 x 10-6 m3 mol-1 (18.0 cm3 mol-1). Although Vw can be influenced by the solutes present, it is generally close to 18.0 x 10-6 m3 mol-1 for a dilute solution, a value that we will use for calculations in this book. 

Applying the definition of the partial molal volume given in equation (8.2). 

Activities of Electrolytes.—When the solute is an electrolyte, the standard states for the ions are chosen, in the manner previously indicated, as a hypothetical ideal solution of unit activity in this solution the thermodynamic properties of the solute, e.g., the partial molal heat content, heat capacity, volume, etc., will be those of a real solution at infinite dilution, i.e., when it behaves ideally. With this definition of the standard state the activity of an ion becomes equal to its concentration at infinite dilution. 

Both these considerations would be taken into accoimt if the activation process were assumed to occur at a constant pressure, p, such that the partial molar volume of the solvent is independent of the temperature, though this possibility does not appear to have been considered. A full discussion is beyond the scope of this chapter, but the resulting heat capacities of activation are unlikely to differ greatly from those determined at a constant pressme of, say, 1 atm. (see p. 137). Unfortunately, this approach requires the definition of rather clumsy standard states for solutes, e.g., hypothetically ideal, 1 molal, under a pressure such that a given mass of the pure solvent occupies a particular volume. 

The volume of activation Av represents the volume change that accompanies the formation of the activated complex in the transition state, and it is defined by the summation in equation (14-184). The definitive work on this subject by Evans and Polanyi (1935, 1936) describes vi as the molal volume of species i. Laidler (1965, pp. 231-237) describes W simply as the volume of species i. More recently, Reichardt (1988, p. 275) interprets vj as the partial molar volume... 

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