MCAT General Chemistry Review - Alexander Stone Macnow, MD 2019-2020

Solutions
Conclusion

Our review of solution chemistry has provided an opportunity for us to consider the nature of solutions, solutes, and solvents, and the interactions between solutes and solvents in the formation of solutions. We reviewed solubility and the rules that reflect the solubility of common compounds in water. The different ways of expressing the amount of solute in solution were identified, and examples were given for each unit of concentration, including percent composition, mole fraction, molarity, molality, and normality. Next, we reviewed the thermodynamic principles of solution equilibria and defined unsaturated, saturated, and supersaturated solutions with respect to ion product (IP) and solubility product constant (K_sp). Subsequently, we discussed the common ion effect from the perspective of Le Châtelier’s principle for a solution at equilibrium. And finally, we examined the colligative properties of solutions and the mathematics that govern them. The colligative properties—vapor pressure depression, boiling point elevation, freezing point depression, and osmotic pressure—are physical properties of solutions that depend on the concentration of dissolved particles but not on their chemical identities.