General Chemistry 2

Quarter 1- Module 10
Colligative Properties of Solutions

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General Chemistry 2 (SHS-STEM)
Quarter 1 – Module 10: Colligative Properties of Solutions

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 MOST ESSENTIAL
LEARNING COMPETENCY

 Describe the effect of concentration on the

colligative properties of solutions

 Differentiate the colligative properties of

nonelectrolyte solutions and of electrolyte
solutions

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

1. define colligative properties conceptually;

2. determine the different colligative properties of solutions; and

3. describe how the concentration of solutions affects the

colligative properties of solutions.

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INTRODUCTION

In the previous module, you have learned what a solution is and its composition
(solute and solvent). Commonly the solvent is a liquid, but in some cases like for
example our atmosphere is a solution with the nitrogen (a gas) as the solvent (79%).
On the other hand, the solute is the substance that is being dissolved and particularly
of smaller amount. An example, when you dissolved 1 tablespoon of table sugar
(sucrose) and ½ teaspoon of salt (sodium chloride) in water, you would have one
solvent (water) and two solutes (sodium chloride and sucrose). This mixture
determines the concentration (components of a mixture or solution) of a solution.

Some substances will dissolve in particular solvent and others will not as it
follows the general rule in Chemistry “like dissolves like”. This simply means that
polar substances (salts, alcohols, and others) will dissolve in polar solvents such as
water, and nonpolar solute, such as iodine, will dissolve in nonpolar solvents such as
carbon tetrachloride. This dissolving capacity of a solvent is a colligative property
which depends on the number of solute particles dissolved in it, but not the identity or
nature of those solute particles. Thus we can say that the more solute we add to a
given amount of solvent, the more the colligative property of that solvent will change.
For example, adding a pinch of salt to a cup of water makes the water freeze at
a lower temperature than it normally would, boil at a higher temperature, have a lower
vapor pressure, and changes its osmotic pressure.

When we talk about colligative properties (or collective properties), these

properties are bound together by the common origin -- they all depend on the number
of solute particles present, regardless of whether they are atoms, ions, or molecules.
The colligative properties are vapor-pressure lowering, boiling point elevation,
freezing-point depression, and osmotic pressure that is to be discussed in this module.

PRE-TEST
1. What is an osmotic pressure?
a) It is the minimum pressure that should be applied to a certain solution.
b) This is the pressure needed to prevent osmosis
c) The process applied in the purification of water.
d) The pressure applied to the less concentrated solution for the solvent to
flow.

2. What will happen to the vapor pressure of a substance when you added 1 mole
of sucrose to a 1 L of water and a 1 mol of dextrose to another 1 mol of water?
a) The pressure becomes higher because what I added were two different
solutes.
b) The pressure is lessen by half because I added different solute so it has
different rate of pressure.
c) The pressure is the same because I added the same number of solute
particles
d) The pressure has no effect at all because both the solutes are
nonreactive to water.

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3. Which of the following qualitative explanation of the freezing-point depression
is UNTRUE?
a) Freezing involves a transition from the disordered stated to the ordered
state. For this to happen, energy must be removed from the system.
b) A solution that has a greater disorder than the solvent needs more
energy to be removed from it to create order than in the case of pure
solvent.
c) The freezing point of a substance is the temperature at which the solid
and liquid phases coexist and their vapor pressures are the same.
d) If a volatile solute is added to a solvent, the freezing point of the solvent
is lowered and the reduction in the freezing point depends on the number
of moles of solute present.

4. When is a liquid solution formed?

a) Liquid solution is being formed when the solute is gas which is dissolved
in a liquid solvent.
b) Liquid solution is being formed when one solute is in a liquid state.
c) Liquid solution is being formed when two parts of solution is neither in a
liquid state.
d) None of the above.

5. You are starting to do an experiment about osmosis. In your set-up of

apparatus, the left compartment contains pure solvent and the right
compartment contains a solution. The two compartments are separated by a
semipermeable membrane. At the start, the water levels in the two tubes are
equal and after some time, the level in the right tube begins to rise and continue
to go up until equilibrium is reached, that is, until no further change can be
observed. What is the BEST explanation of this scenario in terms of osmotic
pressure?
a) Because the vapor pressure of the solution is higher than the pure
solvent (water), there is a net transfer of water from the left beaker to
the right one.
b) The osmotic pressure is indirectly proportional to the concentration of
solution.
c) There is no absolute difference between the two compartments it’s just
because one has a greater pressure that pushes the liquid to flow and
transfer to the other compartment.
d) The osmotic pressure is equal to the hydrostatic pressure exerted by
the column of fluid in the right tube at equilibrium

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START HERE!

Before you continue reading the module, complete first the table given below
(only the two first columns). After you’ve done absorbing all the important information
you need to know, filled-up the last column.

Coca-Cola Classic vs. Diet Coke

Which is your drink of choice?

Hmm, whether you choose Diet Coke over Coca Cola Classics or the reverse,
one thing is certain. Diet Coke has less sugar than Classic Coke. How this relates to
our topic? We are talking about colligative properties here, where in this scenario, the

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amount of sugar in each drink makes a huge difference in its respective freezing point
(one of the colligative properties).

You can try an experiment by following this procedure. (But consider this
ONLY if you have enough resources to buy the PRODUCT because this is not a
mandatory requirement in this module).

1. Place a can of each drink in the same freezer, at the same temperature, for the
same amount of time, you will see a big difference in their freezing point.
2. Observe its difference. (The explanation for this, that it differs the amount of
sugar in each drink).
3. Have you seen that Diet Coke would be completely frozen due to its lower sugar
count while the Classic Coke would remain simply a cold liquid. In this example,
it can be explained that Diet Coke has the lower amount of solute particles
(sugar) than the Classic Coke.

What are COLLIGATIVE PROPERTIES? This is defined as the properties that

depend only on the number of solute particles in solution and not on the nature of the
solute particles.

So, what are the key words that you should remember when you heard the
words colligative properties?
_______________________________________________________________

For better understanding, let’s try to talk about each of the colligative properties
of solutions.

VAPOR PRESSURE LOWERING

In this discussion you will encounter the word nonvolatile. Are you familiar with
it? A solute that is nonvolatile (does not have a measurable vapor pressure), the
vapor pressure of its solution is always less than that of the pure solvent. Thus the
relationship between solution vapor pressure and solvent vapor pressure depends on
the concentration of the solute in the solution. Pure solvents are those solvents with
one component like water. While a substance that evaporates readily is called volatile.

For example, a liquid is contained in a closed container, the liquid eventually

evaporates, and the gaseous molecules contribute to the pressure above the liquid.
The pressure due to the gaseous molecules of the evaporated liquid is called the
liquid’s vapor pressure. Take a look with the picture below:

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 FIGURE 1.0 (a) Equilibrium between vapor and liquid in
a closed container. (b) Nonequilibrium (evaporation) in
an open container; equilibrium cannot be established
because the vapor does not collect.

Question #1: Based from the discussion and illustration, why is it that when you try to
boil an egg in an open container/pot, and leave awhile, upon returning you’ve noticed
the water decreases? What about the movement of water molecules? What if you
decided to put a lid on the container/pot, what will be the movement of the water
molecules?
___________________________________________________________________

Question #2: What is the relationship between the volatility of a substance to the vapor
pressure? How about a nonvolatile substance to its vapor pressure?
___________________________________________________________________

I’ll give you examples for better understanding of this colligative property (vapor
pressure lowering).

1. Are you familiar with the use of pressure cooker? Have you seen one or
use it at home? If not refer to the picture on the next page. Why do we consider it as
one of our examples? Because a pressure cooker operates on the principle that an
increase in the pressure on the surface of a liquid will increase the boiling point of the
liquid. More pressure on the surface decreases the vapor pressure because more
liquid molecules will stay in the liquid phase and not escape to the vapor phase.

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2. Another example is putting coolant or antifreeze in the radiator to keep a car
from overheating. A coolant/antifreeze circulates through the engine,
maintaining the correct working temperature of different components. The main
component of a coolant/antifreeze is glycol. Vapor pressure lowering explains
why we add ethylene glycol to water. If we don’t apply coolant/antifreeze on the
car radiator there would have an abnormal temperature, automatic engine cut-
off and worst may bring damage to the engine parts.

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 3. Let’s see the other side of the world. I will introduce to you the Great Salt Lake
in Northern Utah, USA. This
is the largest inland body of
salt water in the Western
Hemisphere and one of
the most saline (saltwater)
inland bodies of water in
the world. The lake
changed greatly in size,
depending on the rates of
evaporation and the flow of rivers coming thru the lake.

What is the relationship of Great Salt Lake in our topic? Because if the liquid is
water containing salt, as is true of Great Salt Lake, its vapor pressure will be lower than
a similar body of fresh water at the same temperature. The molecular activity of water
is being reduced when its salinity increases because molecules of dissolved solids
interfere with the motion of water molecules. This has the effect of reducing the
saturation vapor pressure over saline water surface.

4. Compare two solvents, water and alcohol. Of these two solvents, alcohol has a
greater tendency to have its molecules at the liquid surface escape into the gas
phase. We call this evaporation. As a
result, the vapor pressure for alcohol is
greater than that of water for a given
temperature. If you add a nonvolatile
solute to solvent such as water, you
decrease the tendency for water
molecules to evaporate into the gas
phase. In essence, the solute particles
obstruct or reduce the likelihood of
evaporation. As a result, fewer molecules change from the liquid to the gas
phase, thus reducing the vapor pressure. Do you know the reason that the
common antiseptic that is being sold in the market does not only have an
alcohol as an ingredient but added with water, or else before you consumed it
all, it will soon evaporate if it is made of 100% alcohol. Now you know, still Be
COVID free!

Is it enough examples for you to understand the vapor pressure lowering?

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 5. Let’s have a microscopic view of this property. Take a look with the chemical
equation given below:

Take note that based on the definition of vapor pressure lowering, it depends
on the number of solute particles that have been dissolved. The chemical nature of
the solute is not important because vapor pressure is just a physical property of the
solvent. In the chemical equation given which consists of two different solutions of
equal concentration. The first one is the ionic compound sodium chloride (common
table salt) and the other one is the molecular compound glucose (sugar). What
happened upon the dissolved of the ions? The sodium chloride (NaCl) disassociates
into two ions (positive sodium and negative chlorine) while the glucose remains as
glucose. The vapor pressure of the sodium chloride solution will be lowered twice the
amount as the glucose solution. Why? ____________________________

I hope the given examples give light to the first colligative property which is
vapor pressure lowering. Remember that fewer solvent particles escape into the gas
phase, and so the vapor pressure is lowered. The higher the concentration of solute
particles, the less solvent is at the interface and the lower the vapor pressure. This
relationship is referred to as Raoult’s law (states that the vapor pressure of a solvent
above a solution is equal to the vapor pressure of the pure solvent at the same
temperature scaled by the mole fraction of the solvent present).

Can you give at least one example illustrating the vapor-pressure lowering?
___________________________________________________________________

BOILING POINT ELEVATION

Did your mother cook the best spaghetti in the world? Or which do you prefer,
Jollibee’s spaghetti or McDo’s spaghetti? Before you answer this, have you tried to
cook spaghetti or the pasta itself? What did you observewhen you boil the water? Did
you add oil and specifically a salt?

This is mainly our topic. The boiling point elevation’s explains how we cook
spaghetti pasta faster in salt water. The salt raises the boiling point so that more
energy can be transferred to cooking the food during a given amount of time. Liquids
that contain dissolved substances have increased boiling points.

The boiling point is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid is
equal to the atmospheric pressure. If a liquid has a high vapor pressure it means that

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the molecules evaporate faster and it takes a shorter time to equalize the vapor
pressure of the liquid and the atmospheric pressure. Example, a pure water’s boiling
point is 100°C while sea water boils at a higher temperature.

Each individual liquid has a specific temperature at which it boils (at a given
atmospheric pressure). This temperature is the liquid’s boiling point. If you use a
particular liquid as a solvent in a solution, you find that the boiling point of the solution
is always higher than the pure liquid. This is called boiling-point elevation.

Let’s have a practical examples:

1. Let’s go back to the example given in the previous discussion, the coolant or
antifreeze. The ethylene glycol helps prevent the water in the car’s radiator from
freezing through freezing point depression, but it can also elevates the boiling
point of the fluid as well. By raising the boiling point, it helps to protect against
boil-overs. A boil-overs that we are
referring here is the overheating of
engine. How this happens? Because
water boils at 212°F at sea level
atmospheric pressure. When mixed 50-
50 glycol, the boiling point increases to
around 226°F. The problem is that
coolant temperature can easily surpass the boiling point of water or water-
based antifreeze, and that means the liquid designed to cool your engines will
turn to vapor, losing its power to cool.

2. Remember the spaghetti pasta that we are talking previously? What is our main
concern with it? It is about adding salt to water before or while heating that
initially will increase its boiling point, so water
will be hotter than it would be otherwise when
it comes to a boil. Adding salt to water will
increase the water’s boiling point or
temperature. The temperature needed to boil
will increase about 0.5 C for every 58 grams of
dissolved salt per kilogram of water. But take
note what we were discussing here about
boiling point elevation is not making the water
to boil faster instead adding salt will take slightly longer to boil, since its boiling
point has now been elevated. This is adding a nonvolatile solute such as salt to
a solvent (in this example, it’s the water).

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 3. Another example is sugar refining. Sugar is from the sugarcane crop that has
been harvested and the cane juice was
been extracted. It must be refined to
produce crystalline sugar for
consumption. One of its process, the cane
juice or syrup is being boiled and the
temperature at which it boils will depend
on the sugar concentration. How does
boiling point elevation treated in this
example? The boiling point elevation is one way of monitoring the level of
saturation of the solution which is an important consideration for crystallization.
Here in Bicol region, Camarines Sur is abundant with sugar cane plantations
and with one big sugar cane refinery.

Question#3: Why is it that burn caused by boiling syrup is more severe than a burn
caused by boiling water?
_____________________________________________________________

FREEZING POINT DEPRESSION

We are just halfway to our discussion. Let’s proceed to freezing point depression,
the other colligative property.

The freezing point depression is one of the colligative properties that is the
difference in the freezing points of the solution from the pure solvent. As solute is
added to a solvent, the freezing point of the solution will be lowered than the freezing
point of the pure solvent (without the solute). Furthermore, when adding solutes to a
sample of pure solvent, the freezing process is disrupted because the solute particles
block some of the attractive forces between the solvent particles, slowing the freezing
process. This results in a lowered freezing point for the mixed solution against a
sample of pure solvent. If a substance is being added to a solvent (like water), the
solute-solvent interactions prevent the solvent from going into the solid phase, thus,
this interactions requires a decrease of temperature for further solidification of solution.

Example,

1. In some countries they have an

extreme cold climates. But how
much cold is too much? Like in
Kazakhstan, which is located in
the Arctic Circle which is just
below Russia, the terrain in this
place is very uneven and the
temperature varies depending on

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 the altitude. At some point, some places are permanently enveloped in ice,
that’s makes hard in transport. What they did, they added salt on icy roadways.
The salt that is being added on the roads will result for the water to not freeze
on its normal freezing point (0°C) instead it lowers to as low as -9°C. The reason
of this application is that salt causes ice to melt because salt has a lower
freezing point than pure water. Ice in contact with salty water therefore melts,
creating more liquid water, which dissolves more salt, thereby causing more ice
to melt, and so on. The higher the concentration of dissolved salt, the lower its
overall freezing point.

2. Another example is the de-icing of

planes. A number of solutions are used
but commonly a solution such as
ethylene glycol, or a less toxic
monopropylene glycol, is used to de-
ice an aircraft. The aircrafts are
sprayed with the solution when the
temperature is predicted to drop below the freezing point.

Have this thought comes into your mind why is it hot countries put salt on ice in the
ice cream makers to keep the ice from melting, while in cold countries put salt on ice
to melt it, or it is just only me that thought about it?

This is because adding salt to an ice water mixture lowers the freezing point (or
melting point) of the equilibrium. Since ice (on the ice cream makers) absorbs heat
from the surrounding and starts to melt thus it is not cold enough to make an ice cream.
When salt is being added, the equilibrium will be reached, and kept at the lower
temperatures required. In both cases the lowering of the freezing point will depend on
the concentration of salt in the mixture.

The depression of the freezing point of a solution relative to the pure solvent
explains why you put rock salt in the ice/water mix when making homemade ice cream.
The rock salt forms a solution with a lower freezing point than water (or the ice cream
mix that’s to be frozen). The freezing-point depression effect also explains why a salt
(normally calcium chloride, CaCl2) is spread on ice to melt. The dissolving of calcium
chloride is highly exothermic (it gives off a lot of heat). As the calcium chloride
dissolves, it melts the ice and forms a solution in the resulting water. The salt solution
that’s formed when the ice melts has a lowered freezing point that keeps the solution
from refreezing.

Take note that the amount of change in the freezing point is related to the
number of particles of solute in a solution and is not relate to the chemical composition

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of the solute. A 0.20m solution of table salt and a 0.20m of hydrochloric acid has the
same effect on the freezing point.

OSMOTIC PRESSURE

So this could be the last colligative property, the osmotic pressure (the
pressure needed to prevent osmosis). Osmosis is the diffusion of water molecules
across a selectively permeable membrane from an area of higher concentration to an
area of lower concentration that allows the passage of solvent molecules through a
porous membrane from a dilute solution to a more concentrated one. Semi-permeable
membrane is a membrane type where it lets only some small particles pass thru a cell.
This is also the principle behind keeping blood cells alive and well. When we talked
about solutions in cell, we are talking about isotonic, hypotonic and hypertonic. You
will learn this further in your Biology Class. But for the sake of discussion, let us know
the least of it in connection with our topic here.

According to Biology, these types of solutions have different impacts on cells

due to osmosis. Take a look with the illustration below:

The hypertonic solution is the opposite of a hypotonic solution, where there

is more solute outside the cell than inside it. In this type of solution, more solvent will
exit the cell than enter it in order to lower the concentration of solute outside the cell
thus the cell shrinks due to the loss of water (water moves from a higher concentration
inside the cell to a lower concentration outside). On the other hand, the isotonic
solution has the same concentration of solutes both inside and outside of the cell.
Under these conditions, there is no net movement of solvent; in this case, the amount
of water entering and exiting the cell’s membrane is equal. While the hypotonic
solution there is a higher concentration of solutes inside the cell than outside the cell.
When this occurs, more solvent will enter the cell than leave it to balance out the
concentration of solute.

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 Let’s have another set of examples to explain the effect of concentration of
solutions to osmotic pressure

1. Have you observed yourself when

you submerged in a water for a
certain longer time? There is a
shrinking and expanding effects
that takes place simultaneously in
your skin cells that causes wrinkles.
But the shrinkage only happens on
the thickest layer of the skin which
is the hands and feet. What is the primary cause of it? This is due to the
water molecules which naturally flow through a semipermemable mebrane
from a low concentration area to a high concentration area through a
process called osmosis. The osmosis occurs and the water flows into the
upper skin cells, which then take up the water.

2. How about pickles or the local name

“atsara”? Are you familiar with cucumber (pipino)
being soaked in a brine solution in order to make
pickles? The concentration of the solution inside the
cucumber is less than the concentration of the brine
solution, so water migrates through the cell walls
into the brine causing the cucumber to shrink.

3. It also explains why fish died when

you tend to placed them in pure
water while cleaning the tank. Fish
cells, like all cells, have semi-
permeable membranes. A fish that
used to lives in salt water will have
somewhat salty water inside itself
when put it on the freshwater, and
the freshwater will, through osmosis,
enter the fish, causing its cells to swell and eventually dies.

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 4. Home preservation like jam and jelly
is a good example of osmotic pressure. A
large quantity of sugar is actually important
to the preservation process because the
sugar helps to kill bacteria that may cause
botulism. The bacterial cell is in a
hypertonic (high-concentration) sugar
solution, the intracellular water tends to move out of the bacterial cell to the
more concentrated solution by osmosis. This process known as crenation,
causes the cell to shrink, and eventually cease functioning. The natural
acidity of fruits also inhibits bacteria growth.

Post-Test
1. What colligative property is applied when preserving home jam and jelly?
a) Vapor pressure lowering
b) Osmotic pressure
c) Freezing point depression
d) Boiling-point elevation

2. Does the presence of a nonvolatile solute affect the boiling point of the solution?
a) Yes
b) Maybe
c) No
d) Unsure

3. Ethylene glycol, a common automobile antifreeze, is a water soluble and fairly

nonvolatile. When you have 651 g of this substance in 2505 g of water, would
you keep this substance in your car radiator during the summer?
a) No, because the car radiator will prevent the solution from boiling.
b) I am not sure, I’ll ask first the technician if it is possible.
c) Yes indeed, because it prevents the solution in the car radiator from
boiling.
d) None of the above.

4. True or False: Vapor pressure is temperature-dependent (the higher

temperature, the higher the vapor pressure. ________

5. Every morning when I’m about to water my indoor plants, I observed that there
are droplets clinging to the edge of its leaves. What could be the BEST
explanation for this occurrence?
a) The osmotic pressure plays a major mechanism for transporting water
upward in plants.
b) The water just peeped thru the layers of the leaves of the plants.
c) It does not happen to the indoor plants but also to outdoor plants but it
has no significant explanation for this.
d) Water is being pulled up through its trunks, branches and stems of trees
by its pressure.

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Vocabulary

Boiling point – the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid is equal to the
external atmospheric pressure.

Boiling point elevation – the boiling point of the solution minus the boiling point of
the pure solvent.

Colligative properties - are solution properties that are simply dependent upon the
number of solute particles, and not the type of solute

Freezing point depression - one of the colligative property that is the difference in
the freezing points of the solution from the pure solvent. As solute added to a solvent,
the freezing point of the solution will be lowered than the freezing point of the pure
solvent (without the solute).

Nonvolatile - does not have a measurable vapor pressure

Osmosis – the net movement of solvent molecules through a semipermeable

membrane from a pure solvent or from a dilute solution to a more concentrated
solution.

Osmotic pressure – the pressure required to stop osmosis.

Vaporization – the escape of molecules from the surface of a liquid.

Volatile – a substance that evaporates readily.

Answer Key

Question Posed:
1. In an open container, the molecules move fast that it overcome the attractive
forces among itself and eventually escape into a gaseous state so the water
decreases, while in a closed container, the molecules that have escaped can
also return back into the liquid state called condensation.
2. If the liquid is volatile, the escaping tendency of the molecules is high, and the
vapor pressure is high while a nonvolatile substance has a low vapor pressure
because it has a low escaping tendency.
3. The boiling point of a syrup is much higher than a boiling water that’s why the
boiling syrup causes severe burn than a boiling water.

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Pre-Test
1. B
2. C
3. D
4. A
5. D

Post-Test
1. B
2. A
3. C
4. True
5. A

References

Chemistry for Dummies

John T. Moore, EdD
Wiley Publishing Inc
Copyright 2011

Chemistry
Raymond Chang
McGraw-Hill Education (Asia)
Eight Edition, 2005

AP Chemistry 2015
John T. Moore, EdD and Richard H. Langley, PhD.
Copyright 2014
McGraw-Hill Education

General Chemistry 2
Textbook for Senior High School
Marissa F. Ayson and Rebecca S. De Borja
Vibal Group Inc.
Copyright 2016

What Happens to a Car without Coolant/Antifreeze?

January 31, 2018
https://www.holtsauto.com/prestone/news/what-happens-to-a-car-without-coolant-
antifreeze/

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