Identify the following solutions as unsaturated, saturated, or supersaturated. S
ID: 844168 • Letter: I
Question
Identify the following solutions as unsaturated, saturated, or supersaturated. Some solubilities are given below. Note: If any portion of the question is incorrect, a single red X will appear. Solute Solubility in water sucrose (table sugar) 2000 g/L at NaCL (salt) 359 g/L at atenolol (antyhypertensive drug) 26.5 mg/mL at vitamin C 33 9/100 mL at Unsaturated Saturated Supersaturated 7189 NaCL in 0.5 L water 66g of vitamin C in 200 mL of water 2650 mg of atenolol in 50 mL of water 500g of sucrose in 0.5 L of waterExplanation / Answer
A saturated solution is one that can simply hold no more solute. You can make a saturated solution of salt water, for example, by just adding more and more salt to a glass until it can't dissolve any more and starts to remain on the bottom in solid form.
An unsaturated solution, then, CAN hold more solute, if you add more. Our saturated salt solution above is unsaturated right up until the point that it stops dissolving. So to make any unsaturated solution you simply add less than the total amount of solute that the solution can hold.
A supersaturated solution holds MORE than it can. Which sounds impossible, I know. What you have to take into account is that sometimes the solubility can change due to other circumstances... temperature is a very good example. And using temperature is how many supersaturated solutions are made: for our example, we would heat up some water, saturate it at that high temperature, and then cool the water down.
In our case,
718g of NaCl in 0.5 liters -> Supersaturated solution
66g of Vitamin C in 200ml of solution -> saturated solution
2650mg of atenolol in 50ml of water -> Supersaturated solution
500g of sucrose in 0.5 liter of water -> Unsaturated solution