Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Ice Generation and the Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena of Introducing Water to a Cold Bath of Brine
Published on: March 13, 2017
How high can the temperature of a liquid be raised without boiling?
Das1, Chatterjee, Roy
1Department of Physics, Bose Institute 93/1 APC Road, Calcutta 700009, India.
Abstract:
How high the temperature of a liquid can be raised beyond its boiling point without vaporizing (known as the limit of superheat) is an interesting subject of investigation. A different method of finding the limit of superheat of liquids is presented here. The superheated liquids are taken in the form of drops suspended in a dust free gel. The temperature of the superheated liquid is increased very slowly from room temperature to the temperature at which the liquid nucleates to boiling. The nucleation is detected acoustically by a sensitive piezoelectric transducer, coupled to a multichannel scaler, and the nucleation rate is observed as a function of time. The limit of superheat measured by the present method supersedes other measurements and theoretical predictions in reaching the temperature closest to the critical temperature of the liquids.
Related Concept Videos
Vapor Pressure
Clausius-Clapeyron Equation
Heating and Cooling Curves
For instance, the addition of heat raises the temperature of a solid; the amount of heat absorbed depends on the heat capacity of the solid (q = mcsolidΔT). According to thermochemistry, the relation between the amount of heat absorbed or released by a substance, q, and its...
Freezing Point Depression and Boiling Point Elevation
The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which its vapor pressure is equal to ambient atmospheric pressure. Since the vapor pressure of a solution is lowered due to the presence of nonvolatile solutes, it stands to reason that the solution’s boiling point will subsequently be increased. Vapor pressure increases with temperature, and so a solution will require a higher temperature than will pure solvent to achieve any given vapor pressure, including one...
Freezing Point Depression and Boiling Point Elevation
Vapor Pressure of Fluid
When a liquid is placed in a closed container with a small air space, and the space is evacuated, vapor molecules will...

