Calcium chloride is spread on icy winter roads to clear them. Which explanation best accounts for ice melting even when the pavement temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius?

Core Concept

Dissolved particles interfere with the orderly crystal arrangement water molecules must adopt to freeze, lowering the temperature at which ice and liquid coexist according to Delta Tf = i Kf m. Spread on ice, calcium chloride creates a brine whose equilibrium freezing point sits far below zero, so the solid melts until the solution becomes saturated or the temperature drops past the new limit.