Van 't Hoff factor

[NCMED101]

So for soluble substances based on the solubility rules the Van't Hoff factor is just the number of moles of solute. For example the factor for CaCl2 is 3. But for compounds that don't dissolve completely in water such as AgCl. Is the factor 1 or do you still count it as 2?

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[cfrost]

For insoluble things like AgCl the van't hoff factor is actually close to 0. Remember that for colligative properties only the amount of molecules in solution matter. CaCl2 is around 3 but will actually be slightly less since it is not totally soluble in water (there will still be some CaCl2 molecules).

 

[Majik]

The van't hoff factor considers all the salts to dissolve 100%. So even though AgCl is not very soluble, it still has a van't hoff factor of 2.