Water physical changes with heat

This was got over by saying that in such cases there were physical changes in which solid salt became liquid, as well as chemical changes in which the salt combined with the water. The absorption of heat attending the first change exceeded the evolution in the second. To all such exceptions it was thought sufficient to answer that they were not of a purely chemical nature. ... 

To avoid the use of the ambiguous term "heat" in connection with "heat content," it is customary to use the term enthalpy. At a given temperature and pressure, every substance possesses a characteristic amount of enthalpy (H), and the heat changes associated with chemical and physical changes at constant pressure are called changes in enthalpy (AH) AHT is the enthalpy of transition. Two common enthalpies of transition are AHf = 1435 cal/mole for the enthalpy of fusion (melting) of ice at 0°C, and AH, = 9713 cal/mole for the enthalpy of vaporization of water at 100°C. 

It has been reported that by heating in the presence of water vapor, silicon can be incorporated into the lattice of y-Fe203 (55,64). It is unlikely that this effect occurs under the butene oxidation conditions since a physical mixture of large size iron oxide and silica gel retains its selectivity for butadiene after a prolonged reaction time without any indication of changes in the catalyst. If silicon substitution takes place, the water from the oxidation reaction could catalyze the substitution. In fact, deliberate pretreatment of such a physical mixture with water vapor before reaction does not change the activity or selectivity (54). 

This is a short but critically important section. When a system is at equilibrium, it has no tendency to change in either direction (forward or reverse) and will remain in its state until it is disturbed from outside the system. For example, when a block of metal is at the same temperature as its surroundings, it is in thermal equilibrium with them, and energy has no tendency to flow into or out of the block as heat. When a gas confined to a cylinder by a piston has the same pressure as the surroundings, the system is in mechanical equilibrium with the surroundings, and the gas has no tendency to expand or contract (Fig. 7.21). When a solid, such as ice, is in contact with its liquid form, such as water, at certain conditions of temperature and pressure (at 0°C and 1 atm for water), the two states of matter are in physical equilibrium with each other, and there is no tendency for one form of matter to change into the other form. Physical equilibria, which include vaporization as well as melting, are dealt with in detail in Chapter 8. When a chemical reaction mixture reaches a certain composition, it seems to come to a halt. A mixture of substances at chemical equilibrium has no tendency either to produce... 

Nitrate explosives. The term explosion is applied to the effect produced by a sudden change in the pressure of one or more gases. This may be the result of either chemical or physical changes—that is, the sudden liberation or absorption of gases in chemical reactions or the sudden formation of gases from either liquids or solids. Because certain nitrates decompose readily with liberation of gaseous products, these substances are useful in compounding a variety of commercial explosives. Ammonium nitrate is stable under ordinary atmospheric conditions and may be handled safely in small quantities, even at elevated temperatures. When the dry salt is heated, it decomposes with liberation of nitrous oxide and water,... 

Cement generally begins with a mixture of limestone and sand placed in a kiln, which heats it to about 1480°C. As the mixture is heated, its chemical and physical properties change. After heating, the solid that remains is ground into a fine powder. This is cement. To make concrete, the cement is mixed with fine particles, such as sand, coarse particles, such as crushed stone, and water. 

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