EXPERIMENT- 3
• AIM
To determine the Melting Point of the given sample.
• MATERIALS REQUIREMENT
a) Chemicals Requirement:
Liquid Paraffin
b) Glassware Requirement:
Thiele's Tube ,Thermometer, Glass capillaries bunsen burner, spatula, Tongs, Stand , etc. as
required.
• THEORY:
Melting Point :
The constant temperature at which a solid phase of a compound convert into its liquid phase by
absorbing latent heat of melting is called melting point.
It depends on the pressure , usually given for a standard pressure.
For example - Melting Point of Ice ( solid phase of water ) to its liquid phase is 0°C at 1
atmospheric pressure.
Melting point serves as a criteria to determine the purity and quality of a compound as ions or
molecules of a given compound are arranged in a regular geometric fashion.
Melting point occurs when a temperature is reached at which the thermal energy of pactile is
great enough to overcome the inter crystalline forces that hold them together.
A pure crystalline compound or organic compound have a definite and sharp melting point.
But , in amorphous compounds or solids , they have a range of melting points. These
compounds do not arranged in a regular geometric fashion ,thus do not have a sharp melting
point.
Thiele-Dennis tube or Thiele's tube is use in determination of melting point . It is designed in a
way that when the tube filled with liquid ( oil ) is heated, convection currents are generated
whithin the oil , which allows the oil to flow continuously without stirring or shaking. This results
in a constant heat transfer by oil to the sample and more accurate results can be generated.
NOTE: It should be noted that the melting point of a given sample compound must be lower
than the boiling point of Liquid paraffin ( ie. >300°C ). , otherwise another oil or liquid can be
taken.
PROCEDURE :
1) Clean all the glsswares and dry them.
2) Convert sample compound into fine powder manually.
3) Now , take a capillary, and fuse one end of capillary by directly heating on bunsen burner ,
when it gets red hot, gently tap the end of capillary on solid base.
4) Fill the sample into capillary tube with the help of needle carefully by gently tapping alongside
so that it react upto it's bottom.
5) Now, fill the thiele's tube with liquid paraffin.
6) Tie capillary tube to thermometer with the help of thread so that its end is just slightly above
the bulb of thermometer.
7) Set up the stand , thiele's tube , thermometer along with capillary as shown in the figure.
( Diagram )
8) Start heating thiele's tube with the help of bunsen burner and note down the initial
temperature when the compound starts to melt and then note down the temperature when the
compound fully melts.
9) Calculate the melting point by taking the mean of initial and final readings of melting point of
sample.
( Formula )
• RESULT:
The melting point of given sample compound is determined.