Solubility

Solubility is the property of a solid, liquid or gaseous chemical substance called solute to dissolve in a solid, liquid or gaseous solvent.

A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a constant volume independent of pressure.

A chemical substance, also known as a pure substance, is a form of matter that consists of molecules of the same composition and structure.

Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter.

Solubility Product Constant (Ksp) by Professor Dave Explains

The solubility of a substance fundamentally depends on the physical and chemical properties of the solute and solvent as well as on temperature, pressure and presence of other chemicals of the solution.

In chemistry, a solution is a special type of homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances.

A temperature is an objective comparative measure of hot or cold.

Solubility Rules and How to Use a Solubility Table by Melissa Maribel

The extent of the solubility of a substance in a specific solvent is measured as the saturation concentration, where adding more solute does not increase the concentration of the solution and begins to precipitate the excess amount of solute.

In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture.

Insolubility is the inability to dissolve in a solid, liquid or gaseous solvent.

Most often, the solvent is a liquid, which can be a pure substance or a mixture.

In chemistry, a mixture is a material system made up of two or more different substances which are mixed but are not combined chemically.

One may also speak of solid solution, but rarely of solution in a gas.

Under certain conditions, the equilibrium solubility can be exceeded to give a so-called supersaturated solution, which is metastable.

Metastability of crystals can also lead to apparent differences in the amount of a chemical that dissolves depending on its crystalline form or particle size.

A supersaturated solution generally crystallises when 'seed' crystals are introduced and rapid equilibration occurs.

Phenylsalicylate is one such simple observable substance when fully melted and then cooled below its fusion point.

Solubility is not to be confused with the ability to dissolve a substance, because the solution might also occur because of a chemical reaction.

For example, zinc dissolves in hydrochloric acid as a result of a chemical reaction releasing hydrogen gas in a displacement reaction.

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another.

The zinc ions are soluble in the acid.

The solubility of a substance is an entirely different property from the rate of solution, which is how fast it dissolves.

The smaller a particle is, the faster it dissolves although there are many factors to add to this generalization.

Crucially solubility applies to all areas of chemistry, geochemistry, inorganic, physical, organic and biochemistry.

In all cases it will depend on the physical conditions and the enthalpy and entropy directly relating to the solvents and solutes concerned.

In statistical thermodynamics, entropy is a measure of the number of microscopic configurations Ω that correspond to a thermodynamic system in a state specified by certain macroscopic variables.

By far the most common solvent in chemistry is water which is a solvent for most ionic compounds as well as a wide range of organic substances.

Water is a transparent fluid which forms the world's streams, lakes, oceans and rain and is the major constituent of the fluids of organisms.

This is a crucial factor in acidity and alkalinity and much environmental and geochemical work.