Suppose you start with a liquid mixture of 60% nitrogen and 40% oxygen.
Describe what happens as the temperature of this mixture increases. Be sure to
give the temperatures and compositions at which boiling begins and ends.
1 answer
Liquid nitrogen will evaporate first as the temperature rises to -196 C, but the O2 will not start evaporating until the temperature reaches -183 C, the boiling point of pure O2.. While the liquid N2 is evaporating first, some O2 from the air will condense into the mixture, making it even richer in liquid O2. Finally, the liquid wil be almost all O2 as it all boils away at -183 C.