Colligative Properties

Have you ever added salt to boiling water when you are cooking pasta? The addition of salt to water raises the boiling point of the water. This will decrease your cooking time. Why does this happen? When you add the salt, you disrupt the hydrogen bonding of the water molecules. Remember, water is a dipole molecule. The positive sodium ions rush to align themselves with the oxygen atoms of the water molecule. The negative chlorine ions rush to align with the positive hydrogen atoms of the water molecule. Because the water molecules are surrounded by additional ions, it takes more time for water molecules to reach boiling.