Heat of fusion

Heat of fusion is the latent heat released when a liquid changes phase to a solid (fused) crystallized state. It is equal to the heat absorbed by a unit mass of a solid chemical compound at its melting point in order to convert the solid into a liquid at the same temperature. The energy that goes into melting a solid is partly used to dissociate the intermolecular bonds holding its molecules in place and partly absorbed by the higher entropy of the liquid phase. Molecules in a liquid have a higher degree of freedom which makes them move more chaotically and absorb more energy for every unit of thermal velocity (molecular translational or kinetic energy). Category:Chemical properties ca:Calor de fusió de:Schmelzwärme es:Entalpía de fusión fr:Énergie de fusion pl:Ciepło topnienia sl:talilna toplota sv:Smältvärme

View Live Article.
This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under GNU FDL