Ice Melt
25Jan,2024

Ice Melt

BY : Rhiannon Nevinczenko

What is ice melt and how does it work?
Ice melt products are usually made of one or more salts, such as sodium chloride (NaCl), magnesium chloride (MgCl2), and calcium chloride (CaCl2). Salts help ice melt faster by decreasing the freezing point of water. In other words, if water would normally freeze at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, applying salt might decrease that to 24.8 degrees Fahrenheit, making it easier to melt. It can do this because salts are water-soluble (they dissolve in water). As salts dissolve into various ions (e.g., one sodium ion and one chloride ion per NaCl molecule), the ions disperse through the water molecules and separate them a little. This makes it less easy for them to join together into ice crystals. Adding more salt decreases the freezing point even further.
Photo by Adrien Olichon; Pexels license.

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