In chemistry, colligative properties are properties of solutions that depend upon the ratio of the number of solute particles

to the number of solvent molecules in a solution. They are independent of the nature of the solute particles, and are due essentially to the dilution of the solvent by the solute. Colligative properties include: (1) relative lowering of vapor pressure; (2) elevation of boiling point; (3) depression of freezing point and (4) osmotic pressure. The word colligative is derived from the Latin colligatus meaning bound together, since these properties are bound together by the fact that they all depend on the number of solute particles and not on the type of chemical species present. Vapor pressure lowering Vapor pressure, the pressure of the evaporated solvent, decreases as the concentration of solute particles increases. This happens because the solute particles take up a portion of the surface area between the solvent and the gas it is evaporating into. Since the solvent has less opportunities to evaporate there are less evaporated or vaporized solvent particles, thus a decreased vapor pressure. Boiling point and freezing point Addition of solute to form a solution stabilizes the solvent in the liquid phase, and lowers the solvent chemical potential so that solvent molecules have less tendency to move to the gas or solid phases. As a result, liquid solutions slightly above the solvent boiling point at a given pressure become stable, which means that the boiling point increases. Similarly, liquid solutions slightly below the solvent freezing point become stable meaning that the freezing point decreases. Both the boiling point elevation and the freezing point depression are proportional to the lowering of vapor pressure in a dilute solution. These properties are colligative in systems where the solute is essentially confined to the liquid phase. Boiling point elevation (like vapor pressure lowering) is colligative for non-volatile solutes where the solute presence in the gas phase is negligible. Freezing point depression is colligative for most solutes since very few solutes dissolve appreciably in solid solvents. Boiling-point elevation describes the phenomenon that the boiling point of a liquid (a solvent) will be higher when another compound is added, meaning that a solution has a higher boiling point than a pure solvent. This happens whenever a non-volatile solute, such as a salt, is added to a pure solvent, such as water. The boiling point can be measured accurately using an ebullioscope. The boiling point elevation is a colligative property, which means that it is dependent on the presence of dissolved particles and their number, but not their identity. It is an effect of the dilution of the solvent in the presence of a solute. It is a phenomenon that happens for all solutes in all solutions, even in ideal solutions, and does not depend on any specific solute-solvent interactions. The boiling point elevation happens both when the solute is an electrolyte, such as various salts, and a nonelectrolyte. Inthermodynamic terms, the origin of the boiling point elevation is entropic and can be explained in terms of the vapor pressure or chemical potential of the solvent. In both cases, the explanation

depends on the fact that many solutes are only present in the liquid phase and do not enter into the gas phase (except at extremely high temperatures). Freezing-point depression describes the phenomenon in which adding a solute to a solvent (i.e. salt in water, alcohol in water), or the mixing of two solids (such as impurities in a finely powdered drug) (in such cases, the added compound is the solute, and the original solid can be thought of as the solvent) produces a decrease in the freezing point of the solvent. The resulting solution or solid-solid mixture has a lower freezing point than the pure solvent or solid did. This phenomenon is what causes sea water, (a mixture of salt (and other things) in water) to remains liquid at temperatures below 0 C (32 F), the freezing point of pure water. We consider the problem in which the solvent freezes to a very nearly pure crystal, regardless of the presence of the solute. This typically occurs simply because the solute molecules do not fit well in the crystal, i.e. substituting a solute for a solvent molecule in the crystal has high enthalpy. In this case, for low solute concentrations, the freezing point depression depends solely on the concentration of solute particles, not on their individual properties. The freezing point depression thus is called a colligative property. The explanation for the freezing point depression is then simply that as solvent molecules leave the liquid and join the solid, they leave behind a smaller volume of liquid in which the solute particles can roam. The resulting reduced entropy of the solute particles thus is independent of their properties. This approximation ceases to hold when the concentrationbecomes large enough for solute-solute interactions to become important. In that regime, the freezing point depression depends on particular properties of the solute other than its concentration. Vapor pressure or equilibrium vapor pressure is the pressure exerted by a vapor in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed phases (solid or liquid) at a given temperature in a closed system. The equilibrium vapor pressure is an indication of a liquid's evaporation rate. It relates to the tendency of particles to escape from the liquid (or a solid). A substance with a high vapor pressure at normal temperatures is often referred to as volatile. The vapor pressure of any substance increases non-linearly with temperature according to the ClausiusClapeyron relation. The atmospheric pressure boiling point of a liquid (also known as the normal boiling point) is the temperature at which the vapor pressure equals the ambient atmospheric pressure. With any incremental increase in that temperature, the vapor pressure becomes sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure and lift the liquid to form vapor bubbles inside the bulk of the substance. Bubble formation deeper in the liquid requires a higher pressure, and therefore higher temperature, because the fluid pressure increases above the atmospheric pressure as the depth increases. The vapor pressure that a single component in a mixture contributes to the total pressure in the system is called partial pressure. For example, air at sea level, and saturated with water vapor at 20 C, has partial pressures of about 23 mbar of water, 780 mbar of nitrogen, 210 mbar of oxygen and 9 mbar of argon.