I've been researching for weeks but can't find anything on a real life process of hydration, as my experiment is determining the relationship between the enthalpy of hydration and different types of salts. When would knowing the enthalpy of hydration be vital outside the lab?
1
-
$\begingroup$ Do you have doubts about hydration enthalpy specifically, or about enthalpy in general ? $\endgroup$– PoutnikNov 6, 2020 at 17:28
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
abd.shd_247 , welcome to the exchange!
The enthalpy of hydration would be necessary to understand in the industrial context:
One of my professors of Analytical Chemistry told me that, at a plant he used to work for, a group of engineers neglected to factor in the enthalpy of hydration when making vats of concentrated NaOH in massive drums. As such, they added water to the NaOH salt, of which there was hundreds of kilograms, and as the water began to hydrate the salt, the heat was so great that it melted the steel on the drums and flooded the bottom floor of the lab with a highly corrosive NaOH solution.
As such, the enthalpy of hydration will always be an important factor in industrial chemistry, not just in gen chem labs.
