Course:VANT149/2025/Capstone/Science/Team31

Investigating the Effect of Temperature on the Evaporation Rates of Volatile Liquids Abstract

This project explores how temperature influences the evaporation rates of three volatile liquids: acetic acid, ethanol, and ammonia. We conducted two rounds of experiments to examine key factors affecting evaporation. In the first experiment, we tested how the three liquids evaporate under different thermal conditions—0°C (ice water), 25°C (room temperature), and 50°C (hot water)—using identical glass containers. In the second experiment, we held the temperature constant at 25°C and measured the evaporation of acetic acid using three different container types: glass, plastic, and aluminum-coated glass.   The results from the first experiment showed that ammonia had the highest evaporation rate across all tested temperatures, due to its low molecular weight and weak intermolecular cohesion. Ethanol consistently evaporated the slowest, especially at lower temperatures, because of strong hydrogen bonding. In the second experiment, we observed that wider openings in plastic and aluminum-coated containers led to greater evaporation compared to standard glass bottles. These findings offer a useful reference for future scent-related studies by helping identify which substances are more stable for applications that involve controlling the volatility of liquid compounds

Biographies

Person 1

YihaiZhang is a first-year student in the Science program at UBC Vantage College.His research focuses on how temperature affects the evaporation rates of volatile liquids. He is personally interested in this topic because it serves as a foundation for his long-term goal of developing systems that can digitally capture and reproduce complex scent molecules in different environments.