How Sugar Reacts With Ice During Freezing
In chemical terms, water is considered the solvent and sugar the solute. Together, they form a solution -- a mix. Whether you're using a sugar and water solution to complete a science project or just looking for interesting information, the properties of such solutions can provide valuable insight into basic chemistry. Does this Spark an idea?
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Freezing Point
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As with all solutions, the concentrate of the dissolved substance will determine if there is any effect on the freezing point. Sugar itself lowers the freezing point of water in significant amounts -- much like salt, though sugar water will always freezes faster than salt water.
How Much?
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Adding roughly 1 mole of water -- 1-gram weight of sugar -- to a kilogram of water will lower its freezing point by roughly 1.8 C, or 35.2 F.
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Ice Crystals
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Sugar molecules, like salt, do not fit into the pattern of water molecules that make an ice crystal. When ice begins to form in your solution, the sugar molecules will remain in the liquid water in an ever-growing concentration as the ice continues to freeze. If the temperature is such that your solution can freeze slowly, all the water will freeze toward the top of your container, while all the sugar will gather at the bottom.
Fun Fact
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The sugar grains inside the solution can be re-extracted by allowing the water to evaporate, allowing the sugar crystals to re-form.
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References
- Photo Credit Ice Crystal image by Somebody Photo from Fotolia.com
