Question

Suppose you had a bottle made of sugar glass, and filled it with water that was already saturated with sugar.

I know that with a fully saturated solution of sugar in water, no additional sugar can dissolve in the water. However, just like how a reaction in an equilibrium state simply has equal amounts of transformations between the two substances in both directions, could sugar from the water randomly precipitate and sugar from the walls of the container at those points in time dissolve into the liquid? If this process continued for long enough, the water could, hypothetically, dissolve its container and break free. My question is simply whether this could happen.

When thinking about this as a form of equilibrium, I’m reminded of the triple point of a substance—that, too, is an equilibrium, but even in equilibrium, the substance shifts between all of the states. I know these are not directly related in the sense in which I’m talking about, but it highlights what is possible for an equilibrium.

I would assume that whatever principle governs the answer to this question also applies to any substance dissolved to full saturation in any liquid, which is made into a container into which that liquid is placed.

Answer 1

Yes, in a saturated sugar-water solution, a dynamic equilibrium exists where sugar molecules can both dissolve and precipitate, but the process wouldn't necessarily lead to the complete dissolution of a sugar glass container. The equilibrium state maintains a constant concentration of the dissolved substance.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking whether sugar from saturated sugar water can precipitate while sugar from a sugar glass bottle simultaneously dissolves into the solution, possibly leading to the dissolution of the bottle over time. This is a type of solubility equilibrium similar to the process happening at a substance's triple point, albeit not directly related.

In solubility equilibrium, the rate of solute dissolving into the solvent is equal to the rate of the solute precipitating out of the solution. Yes, even if a solution is saturated with sugar, there may be a dynamic exchange where molecules of sugar from the water precipitate and molecules from the glass dissolve into the water.

However, because the system is dynamic, rather than static, it does not necessarily mean that the entire container will dissolve. While agitation of the solution accelerates the process of solute dissolving into the solvent, reaching saturation signifies that any additional solute added will not dissolve unless the system's conditions change (temperature or volume, for example).

In a saturated solution at equilibrium, there is a continuous process of solute dissolving and precipitating. This equilibrium state ensures that the concentration of the dissolved substance remains constant, assuming factors such as temperature are stable. Hence, while theoretically, it is possible for an exchange between the container and the solution, in practice, the bottle made of sugar glass would likely not dissolve entirely into the saturated sugar solution.