102 14.3 Phase Change and Latent Heat
Summary
- Examine heat transfer.
- Calculate final temperature from heat transfer.
So far we have discussed temperature change due to heat transfer. No temperature change occurs from heat transfer if ice melts and becomes liquid water (i.e., during a phase change). For example, consider water dripping from icicles melting on a roof warmed by the Sun. Conversely, water freezes in an ice tray cooled by lower-temperature surroundings.

Energy is required to melt a solid because the cohesive bonds between the molecules in the solid must be broken apart such that, in the liquid, the molecules can move around at comparable kinetic energies; thus, there is no rise in temperature. Similarly, energy is needed to vaporize a liquid, because molecules in a liquid interact with each other via attractive forces. There is no temperature change until a phase change is complete. The temperature of a cup of soda initially at
The energy involved in a phase change depends on two major factors: the number and strength of bonds or force pairs. The number of bonds is proportional to the number of molecules and thus to the mass of the sample. The strength of forces depends on the type of molecules. The heat
where the latent heat of fusion,

Latent heat is measured in units of J/kg. Both
The table shows that significant amounts of energy are involved in phase changes. Let us look, for example, at how much energy is needed to melt a kilogram of ice at
Lf | Lv | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Substance | Melting point (ºC) | kJ/kg | kcal/kg | Boiling point (°C) | kJ/kg | kcal/kg |
Helium | −269.7 | 5.23 | 1.25 | −268.9 | 20.9 | 4.99 |
Hydrogen | −259.3 | 58.6 | 14.0 | −252.9 | 452 | 108 |
Nitrogen | −210.0 | 25.5 | 6.09 | −195.8 | 201 | 48.0 |
Oxygen | −218.8 | 13.8 | 3.30 | −183.0 | 213 | 50.9 |
Ethanol | −114 | 104 | 24.9 | 78.3 | 854 | 204 |
Ammonia | −75 | 108 | −33.4 | 1370 | 327 | |
Mercury | −38.9 | 11.8 | 2.82 | 357 | 272 | 65.0 |
Water | 0.00 | 334 | 79.8 | 100.0 | 22562 | 5393 |
Sulfur | 119 | 38.1 | 9.10 | 444.6 | 326 | 77.9 |
Lead | 327 | 24.5 | 5.85 | 1750 | 871 | 208 |
Antimony | 631 | 165 | 39.4 | 1440 | 561 | 134 |
Aluminum | 660 | 380 | 90 | 2450 | 11400 | 2720 |
Silver | 961 | 88.3 | 21.1 | 2193 | 2336 | 558 |
Gold | 1063 | 64.5 | 15.4 | 2660 | 1578 | 377 |
Copper | 1083 | 134 | 32.0 | 2595 | 5069 | 1211 |
Uranium | 1133 | 84 | 20 | 3900 | 1900 | 454 |
Tungsten | 3410 | 184 | 44 | 5900 | 4810 | 1150 |
Table 2. Heats of Fusion and Vaporization 1 |
Phase changes can have a tremendous stabilizing effect even on temperatures that are not near the melting and boiling points, because evaporation and condensation (conversion of a gas into a liquid state) occur even at temperatures below the boiling point. Take, for example, the fact that air temperatures in humid climates rarely go above
We examine the effects of phase change more precisely by considering adding heat into a sample of ice at

Water can evaporate at temperatures below the boiling point. More energy is required than at the boiling point, because the kinetic energy of water molecules at temperatures below
Example 1: Calculate Final Temperature from Phase Change: Cooling Soda with Ice Cubes
Three ice cubes are used to chill a soda at
Strategy
The ice cubes are at the melting temperature of
The heat transferred to the ice is
Bring all terms involving
Solution
- Identify the known quantities. The mass of ice is
and the mass of soda is - Calculate the terms in the numerator:
and
- Calculate the denominator:
- Calculate the final temperature:
Discussion
This example illustrates the enormous energies involved during a phase change. The mass of ice is about 7 percent the mass of water but leads to a noticeable change in the temperature of soda. Although we assumed that the ice was at the freezing temperature, this is incorrect: the typical temperature is
We have seen that vaporization requires heat transfer to a liquid from the surroundings, so that energy is released by the surroundings. Condensation is the reverse process, increasing the temperature of the surroundings. This increase may seem surprising, since we associate condensation with cold objects—the glass in the figure, for example. However, energy must be removed from the condensing molecules to make a vapor condense. The energy is exactly the same as that required to make the phase change in the other direction, from liquid to vapor, and so it can be calculated from

REAL-WORLD APPLICATION
Energy is also released when a liquid freezes. This phenomenon is used by fruit growers in Florida to protect oranges when the temperature is close to the freezing point

Sublimation is the transition from solid to vapor phase. You may have noticed that snow can disappear into thin air without a trace of liquid water, or the disappearance of ice cubes in a freezer. The reverse is also true: Frost can form on very cold windows without going through the liquid stage. A popular effect is the making of “smoke” from dry ice, which is solid carbon dioxide. Sublimation occurs because the equilibrium vapor pressure of solids is not zero. Certain air fresheners use the sublimation of a solid to inject a perfume into the room. Moth balls are a slightly toxic example of a phenol (an organic compound) that sublimates, while some solids, such as osmium tetroxide, are so toxic that they must be kept in sealed containers to prevent human exposure to their sublimation-produced vapors.

All phase transitions involve heat. In the case of direct solid-vapor transitions, the energy required is given by the equation
The material presented in this section and the preceding section allows us to calculate any number of effects related to temperature and phase change. In each case, it is necessary to identify which temperature and phase changes are taking place and then to apply the appropriate equation. Keep in mind that heat transfer and work can cause both temperature and phase changes.
Problem-Solving Strategies for the Effects of Heat Transfer
- Examine the situation to determine that there is a change in the temperature or phase. Is there heat transfer into or out of the system? When the presence or absence of a phase change is not obvious, you may wish to first solve the problem as if there were no phase changes, and examine the temperature change obtained. If it is sufficient to take you past a boiling or melting point, you should then go back and do the problem in steps—temperature change, phase change, subsequent temperature change, and so on.
- Identify and list all objects that change temperature and phase.
- Identify exactly what needs to be determined in the problem (identify the unknowns). A written list is useful.
- Make a list of what is given or what can be inferred from the problem as stated (identify the knowns).
- Solve the appropriate equation for the quantity to be determined (the unknown). If there is a temperature change, the transferred heat depends on the specific heat (see Chapter 14.2 Example 2) whereas, for a phase change, the transferred heat depends on the latent heat. See Table 2.
- Substitute the knowns along with their units into the appropriate equation and obtain numerical solutions complete with units. You will need to do this in steps if there is more than one stage to the process (such as a temperature change followed by a phase change).
- Check the answer to see if it is reasonable: Does it make sense? As an example, be certain that the temperature change does not also cause a phase change that you have not taken into account.
Check Your Understanding
1: Why does snow remain on mountain slopes even when daytime temperatures are higher than the freezing temperature?
Summary
- Most substances can exist either in solid, liquid, and gas forms, which are referred to as “phases.”
- Phase changes occur at fixed temperatures for a given substance at a given pressure, and these temperatures are called boiling and freezing (or melting) points.
- During phase changes, heat absorbed or released is given by:
where
is the latent heat coefficient.
Conceptual Questions
1: Heat transfer can cause temperature and phase changes. What else can cause these changes?
2: How does the latent heat of fusion of water help slow the decrease of air temperatures, perhaps preventing temperatures from falling significantly below
3: What is the temperature of ice right after it is formed by freezing water?
4: If you place
5: What effect does condensation on a glass of ice water have on the rate at which the ice melts? Will the condensation speed up the melting process or slow it down?
6: In very humid climates where there are numerous bodies of water, such as in Florida, it is unusual for temperatures to rise above about
7: In winters, it is often warmer in San Francisco than in nearby Sacramento, 150 km inland. In summers, it is nearly always hotter in Sacramento. Explain how the bodies of water surrounding San Francisco moderate its extreme temperatures.
8: Putting a lid on a boiling pot greatly reduces the heat transfer necessary to keep it boiling. Explain why.
9: Freeze-dried foods have been dehydrated in a vacuum. During the process, the food freezes and must be heated to facilitate dehydration. Explain both how the vacuum speeds up dehydration and why the food freezes as a result.
10: When still air cools by radiating at night, it is unusual for temperatures to fall below the dew point. Explain why.
11: In a physics classroom demonstration, an instructor inflates a balloon by mouth and then cools it in liquid nitrogen. When cold, the shrunken balloon has a small amount of light blue liquid in it, as well as some snow-like crystals. As it warms up, the liquid boils, and part of the crystals sublimate, with some crystals lingering for awhile and then producing a liquid. Identify the blue liquid and the two solids in the cold balloon. Justify your identifications using data from Table 2.
Problems & Exercises
1: How much heat transfer (in kilocalories) is required to thaw a 0.450-kg package of frozen vegetables originally at
2: A bag containing
- How much heat transfer is necessary to raise the temperature of 0.800 kg of water from
to - How much heat transfer is required to first melt 0.800 kg of
ice and then raise its temperature? - Explain how your answer supports the contention that the ice is more effective.
3: (a) How much heat transfer is required to raise the temperature of a 0.750-kg aluminum pot containing 2.50 kg of water from
4: The formation of condensation on a glass of ice water causes the ice to melt faster than it would otherwise. If 8.00 g of condensation forms on a glass containing both water and 200 g of ice, how many grams of the ice will melt as a result? Assume no other heat transfer occurs.
5: On a trip, you notice that a 3.50-kg bag of ice lasts an average of one day in your cooler. What is the average power in watts entering the ice if it starts at
6: On a certain dry sunny day, a swimming pool’s temperature would rise by
7: (a) How much heat transfer is necessary to raise the temperature of a 0.200-kg piece of ice from
(b) How much time is required for each stage, assuming a constant 20.0 kJ/s rate of heat transfer?
(c) Make a graph of temperature versus time for this process.
8: In 1986, a gargantuan iceberg broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. It was approximately a rectangle 160 km long, 40.0 km wide, and 250 m thick.
(a) What is the mass of this iceberg, given that the density of ice is
(b) How much heat transfer (in joules) is needed to melt it?
(c) How many years would it take sunlight alone to melt ice this thick, if the ice absorbs an average of
9: How many grams of coffee must evaporate from 350 g of coffee in a 100-g glass cup to cool the coffee from
10: (a) It is difficult to extinguish a fire on a crude oil tanker, because each liter of crude oil releases
11: The energy released from condensation in thunderstorms can be very large. Calculate the energy released into the atmosphere for a small storm of radius 1 km, assuming that 1.0 cm of rain is precipitated uniformly over this area.
12: To help prevent frost damage, 4.00 kg of
(a) How much heat transfer occurs as the water freezes?
(b) How much would the temperature of the 200-kg tree decrease if this amount of heat transferred from the tree? Take the specific heat to be
13: A 0.250-kg aluminum bowl holding 0.800 kg of soup at
Problem-Solving Strategies for the Effects of Heat Transfer.
14: A 0.0500-kg ice cube at
15: If you pour 0.0100 kg of
16: Indigenous people sometimes cook in watertight baskets by placing hot rocks into water to bring it to a boil. What mass of
17: What would be the final temperature of the pan and water in Chapter 14.2 Example 3 if 0.260 kg of water was placed in the pan and 0.0100 kg of the water evaporated immediately, leaving the remainder to come to a common temperature with the pan?
18: In some countries, liquid nitrogen is used on dairy trucks instead of mechanical refrigerators. A 3.00-hour delivery trip requires 200 L of liquid nitrogen, which has a density of
(a) Calculate the heat transfer necessary to evaporate this amount of liquid nitrogen and raise its temperature to
(b) What is this heat transfer rate in kilowatt-hours?
(c) Compare the amount of cooling obtained from melting an identical mass of
19: Some gun fanciers make their own bullets, which involves melting and casting the lead slugs. How much heat transfer is needed to raise the temperature and melt 0.500 kg of lead, starting from
Footnotes
Glossary
- heat of sublimation
- the energy required to change a substance from the solid phase to the vapor phase
- latent heat coefficient
- a physical constant equal to the amount of heat transferred for every 1 kg of a substance during the change in phase of the substance
- sublimation
- the transition from the solid phase to the vapor phase
Solutions
Check Your Understanding
1: Snow is formed from ice crystals and thus is the solid phase of water. Because enormous heat is necessary for phase changes, it takes a certain amount of time for this heat to be accumulated from the air, even if the air is above
Problems & Exercises
1:
35.9 kcal
3:
(a) 591 kcal
(b)
5:
13.5 W
7:
(a) 148 kcal
(b) 0.418 s, 3.34 s, 4.19 s, 22.6 s, 0.456 s
9:
33.0 g
10:
(a) 9.67 L
(b) Crude oil is less dense than water, so it floats on top of the water, thereby exposing it to the oxygen in the air, which it uses to burn. Also, if the water is under the oil, it is less efficient in absorbing the heat generated by the oil.
12:
a) 319 kcal
b)
14:
16:
4.38 kg
18:
(a)
(b)
(c)