The melting behaviour of water and water-sodium chloride solutions studied by high-resolution Peltier-element-based adiabatic scanning calorimetry

Abstract

Peltier-element-based adiabatic scanning calorimetry was used to obtain equilibrium enthalpy and heat capacity curves for pure water and water-NaCl mixtures, up to the eutectic mass concentration of 23.2%, in the temperature range from -30 to , including both the eutectic and the ordinary ice melting. From these equilibrium data, information about the transition temperatures and the heats of fusion was extracted. The transition temperatures are consistent with literature data for the phase diagram. The heats of fusion were rescaled with respect to the fraction of the sample that changes phase at each transition. These rescaled values for the eutectic transition are independent of the overall salt concentration, whereas for the ice melting there is an indication of slight decrease with increasing salt concentration.