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Why can broken porcelain pieces, commonly used in chemical experiments, prevent boiling over?

2023-07-12View Original

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First, as for the cause: Continuing to heat superheated liquid will cause sudden and intense boiling, a phenomenon known as \"boiling over\". Or it is called “boiling collapse”. Superheating is a metastable state. Due to the fluctuations within the superheated liquid, molecules with sufficiently high energy in certain areas can push each other apart to form extremely small bubbles. When the temperature of the superheated liquid is much higher than its boiling point, the saturated vapor pressure inside the small bubbles is higher than the external pressure; as a result, the bubbles grow and expand rapidly, eventually leading to the explosion of industrial containers due to their rupture. The reason for the overheating of the liquid is the lack of nuclei within it to form bubbles. To prevent violent boiling in the container, unglazed ceramic pieces containing air can be placed inside it. Solution: To eliminate overheating during the distillation process and ensure a steady state of boiling, zeolites or capillaries with one end sealed are often used, as both can prevent violent boiling when heating. These substances are known as antifoams or boiling promoters. It is important to note that antifoams should not be added while the liquid is boiling, nor should used antifoams be utilized. In simple terms, it’s because when heated, the liquid in the beaker rises upward, resulting in various \"fountains\" of liquid being ejected; in severe cases, this can cause splashes that may injure people. Zeolite can effectively prevent the liquid from rising, allowing it to remain stable during heating. It is well known that zeolites can prevent bumping, but broken porcelain pieces can also do the same. Boiling over can cause the liquid temperature to return to the boiling point, which can be dangerous; therefore, bubbles in the liquid should be increased. The reason for this is that broken porcelain pieces are a porous material, namely porous silicates, which can act as zeolites; they are capable of generating bubbles, allowing the gases produced when the flux boils to escape from the surface of the liquid quickly and smoothly. Zeolites and broken porcelain pieces have the same properties and operate on the same principle. In a pure liquid, the absence of a vaporization nucleus causes it to be heated above its boiling point without boiling, and this phenomenon is known as boiling lag. At this point, adding just a little bit of broken porcelain shards can break the delay in boiling and induce boiling. Thus, the phenomenon of violent boiling occurs because the bubbles in the liquid act as vaporization nuclei; as the number of bubbles in the liquid decreases, the temperature exceeds the boiling point immediately yet no boiling takes place, resulting in superheated liquid. One thing to keep in mind here is that superheated liquids are extremely unstable. When superheated liquid enters the bubbles or when the temperature drops suddenly and sharply, violent boiling occurs, accompanied by a popping sound. Broken porcelain pieces contain many capillaries, which hold gas. During heating and boiling, gas escapes due to the heat, which creates more bubbles to replace those that are lost; this helps prevent violent boiling. Function of zeolite: The function of zeolite is to refine bubbles. Zeolite has many micropores on its surface, resulting in a low surface energy; bubbles form preferentially on the surface of zeolite and are then quickly expelled. Additionally, it acts as a barrier, preventing small bubbles from gathering together, thus avoiding bumping. Boiling over occurs when a localized area of a liquid is heated to a temperature higher than its boiling point without any boiling points existing there; once vaporization centers appear, vaporization takes place immediately, resulting in the formation of large bubbles in that area. This leads to a rapid increase in the volume of that liquid, which in turn causes it to rise quickly to the surface where it bursts. The skeletal structure of zeolites is relatively open; its specific gravity is around 2, and the voids resulting from dehydration account for half of its volume ; In addition to the functions mentioned by the teacher above, the use of zeolites also includes the fact that they have good thermal conductivity, which prevents heat from accumulating in certain areas ; It tumbles with the water, acting as a stirrer, ensuring even heating of the liquid ; Liquid vaporization occurs easily within bubbles; once the bubbles become slightly larger, they separate, preventing violent boiling.

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