Why doesn't alcohol freeze??!


Question: just curious. haha


Answers: just curious. haha

The easy answer to your question is because alcohol's freezing point is -117 degrees and water's freezing point is 0 degrees. Your refrigerator doesn't get cold enough to freeze alcohol.
A better answer is motion. A solid has very little motion of the molecules. As the heat is raised, the amount of motion increases. Eventually, the motion is large enough for the transition to a liquid to occur.
You would think that the size of the molecule would influence the freezing point temperature. And generally, it does. So why does alcohol, with a molecular wt of 46, freeze at a lower temperature than water, which has a molecular wt of 18? Another factor comes into play. This factor is called hydrogen bonding. It causes an increased attraction between molecules which makes them harder to separate(or put into motion). This raises the
freezing point.

Alcohol is a type of antifreeze. If you try to freeze it, the bottle may explode.

Alcohol will freeze, but only at extremely low temperatures. Water's freezing point is 0 degrees Celcius, but the freezing point of ethanol (the alcohol you're talking about) is -114 degrees Celsius. Ultra-low temperature freezers (which are the coldest you can buy) have temperatures between -50 and -90 degrees Celcius. Your freezer at home most likely has temperatures around -10 degrees Celcius. All these temperatures are too warm for pure alcohol to freeze. That's why you can have alcohol in your freezer and it won't freeze.

It's will freeze, but until it gets to -48 degrees for 70% alcohol





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