SOLUTIONS Solutions All the life forms on the earth are associated with solutions. Plants take solutions of nutrients for their growth from the soil. Most of the liquids found in human body including blood, lymph and urine are solutions. Day to day human activities like washing, cooking, cleaning and few other activities involve the formation of solutions with water.
Similarly, the drinks what we take, like fruit juice, aerated drinks, tea, coffee etc. are also solutions. Therefore, the ability of water to form solutions is responsible for sustenance of life. .
COMPONENTS OF SOLUTIONS We know that, a solution is a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances . In a solution, the component which is present in lesser amount (by weight), is called solute and the component, which is present in a larger amount (by weight) is called solvent . The solute gets distributed uniformly throughout the solvent and thus forming the mixture homogeneous. So, the solvent acts as a dissolving medium in a solution.
The process of uniform distribution of solute into solvent is called dissolution . Figure . shows the schematic representation of solution. Solute Solvent Solution Figure .
Formation of solution Conceptual Thoughts All solutions are mixtures; but all mixtures are not solutions. why? A solution must at least be consisting of two components (a solute and a solvent). Such solutions which are made of one solute and one solvent (two components) are called binary solutions .
e.g. On adding copper sulphate crystals to water, it dissolves in water forming a solution of copper sulphate as shown in Figure . . It contains two components i.e.
one solute- copper sulphate and one solvent-water. So it is a binary solution. Similarly, a solution may contain more than two components. For example if salt and sugar are added to water, both dissolve in water forming a solution.
Here two solutes are dissolved in one solvent. Such kind of solutions which contain three components are called ternary solutions . Figure . Formation of Copper sulphate solution .
Types of Solutions . . Based on the