dissolved in water. Sucrose is a nonelectrolyte, which means that the solution contains whole C 12 H 22 O 11 molecules. In predicting the expected freezing point of a solution, one must consider not only the number of formula units present, but also the number of ions that result from each formula unit, in the case of ionic compounds. One can calculate the change in fre
where K f is the freezing point depression constant for the solvent (1.86°C·kg/mol for water), m is the number of moles of solute in solution per kilogram of solvent, and i is the number of ions present per formula unit (e.g., i = 2 for NaCl). This formula is approximate, but it works well for low solute concentrat
Because the presence of a solute lowers the freezing point, many communities put salt on their roads after a snowfall, to keep the melted snow from refreezing. Also, the antifreeze used in automobile heating and cooling systems is a solution of water and ethylene glycol (or propylene glycol); this solution has a lower freezing point than either pure water or pure ethylene glycol.