Lucy Qu

Investigating the Relationship between QASMT

Toowong, Queensland, Australia
Salinity and Specific Heat Capacity May 2016
The specific heat capacity of different concerntrations of salt solutions were investigate in order to find the relashionship between salinity and specific heat capacity.

Research Question: Analysis:

How does the concentration of salt dissolved in water affect the specific heat capacity? The power of the kettle was 2300W, which meant that it produced 2300J/s. When the change in
temperature was graphed against time, the resulting gradient would be equal to the ∆T/s. As both
Background: the power and temperatures are measured over the same amount of time, it can be assumed that
Different materials have varying specific heat capacities. Or rather, different amounts of the power is 2300J and the ∆T is equal to the gradient. Therefore, by using Q=mc∆T, the specific
energy is needed to heat different materials. Water has a specific heat capacity of 4.18 kJ/kgK heat capacity can be found. From this, the specific heat capacity at each concentration was found.
while salt (NaCl) has a specific heat capacity of 0.88 kJ/kgK. When salt is dissolved in water, it
changes several properties, one of which is the specific heat capacity. Concentration of salt (g/dm3) Specific heat capacity (J/gK)
Specific heat capacity can be calculated through the formula Q=mc∆T, with Q representing the 0 4.80
heat energy, m representing the mass, c being the specific heat capacity and ∆T being the change 100 3.02
in temperature. 200 2.87
300 2.48
Methodology:
1. Measure 500ml of water and pour into a kettle
Specific Heat Capacity as Concentration of Salt Increases
2. Boil water while measuring the temperature rise using temperature probe until
temperature rises to 80oC 6

3. Weigh 25g of NaCl and mix until fully dissolved with 500ml of water then pour into a
kettle 5

4. Repeat step 2
4
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with 50, 75, and 100g of salt

Specific Heat Capacity (J/gK)

6. Find the gradient of the graph of time against temperature from 40-70oC. The 3
gradient is the temperature rise in one second
7. Use Q=mc∆T with Q being the power of the kettle and T being the gradient of the 2

graph to calculate the specific heat capacity

8. Graph the specific heat capacity of each concentration of salt to find trend 1

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Concentration of Salt (g/dm^3)

Evaluation:
To verify the viability of using the method of finding the specific heat capacity, the experimental
value of the specific heat capacity of water can be compared to the theoretical. The experimental
value was 4.80J/gK while the theoretical value was 4.18J/gK. This leads to a percentage error of
15%. This could have been because of many factors such as the water not being uniformly heated
and heat being lost.
The trend in the graph shows that there is an inverse relationship between the concentration of salt
and the specific heat capacity. It appears to be decreasing at a constant rate. As the specific heat
capacity of NaCl is 0.86J/gK, it would make sense that the specific heat capacity of an aqueous
solution containing NaCl should decrease.
Conclusion:
The experiment showed that as the concentration of salt increased, the specific capacity of the
solution decreased.
Figure 1. Apparatus setup Applications:
Data: Oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface and salinity in the ocean varies by 5-10%. The high
Concentration of salt (g/dm3) ∆T/second Mass of salt + water (g) specific heat capacity of water helps to control the rate of change of air and affects our climate. As
sea water contains salt, the concentration of salt and its specific heat capacity will also impact on
0 4.80 500
our climate.
50 3.02 550
Additionally, the specific heat capacity is one of the factors affecting distillation system
100 2.87 600
performance in desalination systems and is considered when modelling and analysing desalination
150 2.48 650
processes.