Dissolution

Definition

The process by which a solid is pulled into solution, treated as an energetic transaction where water pays to break a solid apart and recovers that cost by stabilizing the separated species.

The exposed charges that hold an ionic lattice together also make it a target, and water disrupts the arrangement by stabilizing the separated ions. Water’s polarity, with its reaching positive and negative ends, is the shape that dissolves rock and strips minerals from the earth. This is how the network pulls minerals out of rock and carries them into systems where they later precipitate as scale.

Related concepts

Gibbs Free Energy · Hydrogen-Bond Network · Hydration Energy

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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 🧪 chemistry