Lab 14: Titration Lab

Lab 14: Titration Lab

The purpose of this laboratory experiment was to determine the percentage of ionization of acetic acid. To determine the the percentage ionization we ascertained the amount of a constituent in the solution by measuring the volume of a known concentration of chemical required to complete a reaction. This process is called titration. We titrated the acetic acid with NaOH, a strong base. We poured 50 mL of NaOH into a burette and slowly dripped drops of it into an Erlenmeyer flask that contained acetic acid and an indicator called phenolphthalein so that we would know when the solution had reached equilibrium. All three of our trials resulted in our team missing the point of equilibrium between NaOH and acetic acid, but our last attempt gave us the most reliable molarity of the acetic acid. It was .83M and we had .85M. To calculate the percent ionization of the acetic acid we divided the H30+ concentration by the concentration of NaOH. To determine these concentrations we averaged the molarity of the acid for all three attempts and divided .004 by .81 to get a percent ionization of .49% This number is very low because acetic acid is a very weak acid and does not ionize well.  The hydrogen ions from the acid do not disassociate well because it is so weak, and this results in a low percent ionization.

The Setup

The final product (we missed the point of equilibrium but this was our most accurate attempt)

Lab 13B: Solubilty, A Guided Inquiry Lab

Lab 13B: Solubility, A Guided Inquiry Lab

Introduction: The purpose of this laboratory experiment was to test our knowledge of the process of solubility. We had to create our own procedure for determining the identity of the unknown solute that was to be dissolved in water. To do this we dissolved various amounts of the solute, the substance that was being dissolved, into the solvent, the substance that is dissolving the solute, in this case water. At different temperatures the solubility, or the amount a solute will dissolve in a solvent, changes. The higher the temperature, the higher the solubility and vice-versa. The purpose of the lab was basically to change the temperature and amount of solute to determine the identity of the solute. Other vocabulary terms were saturated- which is when a solution has dissolved the maximum amount of solute it can. Unsaturated- when a solution can still dissolve more solute.

Procedure: For this experiment we filled a beaker of water to 10 ml, and used a larger beaker to heat it up by putting the smaller beaker inside it. This removed temperature fluctuations. Then we dissolved approximately 4.30 grams of the substance at 36 degrees Celsius. It dissolved completely*, so we could rule of the NaCl substance because if it was NaCl it would have formed precipitate according to the solubility graph. The next part of the experiment was to increase the mass of solute to about 7.50 grams and keep the temperature at 40 degrees Celsius. When the water did not dissolve, we could confirm that the substance was not NaNO3, because it was under the solubility line and would have completely dissolved had it been NaNO3. To complete the final part of the experiment and confirm the identity of the substance, which at this point you can guess is KNO3, we increased the temperature to around 80 degrees Celsius and kept the mass at around 7.50 g. When we stirred the solution we noticed that the solid dissolved and this confirmed it at KNO3 because it was below the solubility line of KNO3. Some of the important materials we used were a graduated cylinder, a stirring rod, a scoopula, two beakers, a heating plate, a thermometer, a scale, a measuring plate, 10 ml water, and KNO3.

Data:

Mass of beaker- 29.74 g

Volume of water- 10 mL

Water temp- 21 C

Solute- KNO3

Conclusion: The unknown substance was KNO3. The reason we can be sure of the results was the evidence from the Solubility Chart. The first piece of evidence was that the solid did not dissolve at when we put conditions at 7 grams at 40 degrees. This did not dissolve and was under the solubility line for NaNO3 so we could rule out that substance. The next evidence was 4 grams of substance at 36 Celsius, and when it dissolved and was over the solubility line for NaCl we could rule it out as well. Therefore, the only substance it could possibly be was KNO3.

The illusive KNO3

Lab 12: Gases

Lab 12: Gases

For case 1, we studied the relationship between volume and pressure and found it to be inverse relationship. To do this , we set the temperature as the constant parameter and adjusted the volume of the box so that the pressure would change. 

For case 2, we studied the relationship between volume and temperature and determined that they were directly proportional. We picked a pressure and made that our constant. Then we adjusted volume and temperature and saw that they went up and down together.

For case 3, we studied the relationship between temperature and pressure and found them to be directly proportional. Volume was our constant in this one, and we adjusted the temperature to observe its relationship with pressure.

For case 4, we studied the relationship between the number of particles and volume and determined that they were directly proportional. We set pressure constant and set the number of particles to our choosing. The program changed the volume to accommodate the particles, and we saw that they increased and decreased together.

Spreadsheet of Data

In the spreadsheet we mistyped the first point for Volume versus Pressure. In the volume column, we have the first one as 1.78cm^3, but the point does not make sense. We could not find the actual point so we only have five points for this group.

4.
a. Bicycle tires seem more flat in the winter because of the relationship between volume and temperature. As the temperature goes down, the volume of the tire will go down too because the tire's particles slow and colliding with the boundaries of the tire less frequently.

b. A can of soda will explode if left out in the sun because of the relationship between temperature and pressure. As the temperature goes up, the pressure inside of the can will go up too due to the increasing speed of the gas particles inside. When the pressure gets so high that it can't be contained inside the can, it is released in an explosion.

c. The pressure will go down because as temperature goes down, pressure will also decreases. However, the volume should stay constant, because the container is rigid and will not expand or contract with the movement of the gas.

d. Using heat should will not help because of the relationship between heat and pressure. As heat increases, pressure will also increases. That heat would increase the pressure around the pain, and cause the person with the pain to regret his decision of not paying attention in chemistry class the day the relationships of pressure and temperature were explored.

Lab 11A: Specific Heat of a Metal

Lab 11A: Specific Heat of a Metal 

Today, the purpose of the experiment was to determine the identity of a metal by determining its specific heat and comparing it to known metals. This can be calculated by measuring the difference in temperature between a boiling metal block, and a room temperature one. Now we can use the amount of energy we can calculate the specific heat by using amount of joules.

Click here to view the data for the experiment.

Metal A, our metal block, is most likely brass because the specific heat of brass is 380, which is closest to the specific heat that we found, 329.

The benevolent metal Brass.

Lab 11B: Calories in Food Lab

Lab 11B: Calories in Food Lab

Question 1: We measured the change in temperature in the water above the calorimeter. We put the calorimeter over the food sample that was burning and then we put a flask of water on top of it. This way we could measure the temperature easily with the thermometer we were provided.

Question 2: We measured the energy gained by the water because the temperature of the water measures the energy gained by it.

Question 3: The small amount of energy that does not go into the water will go into the surroundings, or in this case the can and air around the experiment.

Question 4: I was surprised that the cheese puff burned very fast and then did not burn easily. I was also surprised that the pecan had the most calories of all the foods tested.

Lab 10: Evaporation and Intermolecular Attractions

Lab 10: Evaporation and Intermolecular Attractions

Data from the Lab and Pre-Lab

Questions:

1: In data table

2: The reason for the differences in the volatility between the different liquids can be founds in their bonds. Methanol, which was the most volatile, had the lowest number of hydrogen bonds, and was the smallest. Therefore it evaporated quickly. The next one was ethanol which was only slightly bigger than methanol so it evaporated more slowly. After that came water which has a double hydrogen bond, and after that came n-butanol. The reason that glycerin did not evaporate was that it was a fairly large molecule with many bonds, so it gathered heat instead of losing it to evaporation.

3: Water and methanol had similar molar masses, but their speeds of evaporation differ greatly. The reason for this is that water had two hydrogen bonds and methanol only has one. Waters intermolecular forces are higher than that of methanol.

4: The number of OH groups affects the evaporation rates of liquids because it is a hydrogen bond. The more OH groups a liquid has, the harder it will be for it to evaporate, because it requires more energy.

Lab 7: Flame Test

Lab 7: Flame Test

The main purpose of this experiment was to emphasize the concept that different chemicals or elements will emit different wavelengths when they are in excited states. These wavelengths on the visible spectrum are colors. The other purpose was to identify the two unknown substances based on the color they emitted when they were in an excited state. The setup of the lab was simple. We were provided a Bunsen burner to burn the compounds and sticks soaked with the different compounds. We held the stick above the lit Bunsen burner and watched as the compounds emitted different colors.

Lithium Chloride, one of the unknown substances, burning a magenta color

Pre-lab Questions:

Unknown Substances: #1. Lithium Chloride

                                     #2. Potassium Chloride

How we know: We can be sure that the two unknown substances are Lithium Chloride and Potassium Chloride because each each compound will emit a different wavelength when its electrons are in an excited state. The different emitted wavelengths correspond to a color that will be unique to that certain compound. For this reason, we can be sure that the compounds are correctly identified. 

Lab 8: Electron Configuration Battleship Lab

Lab 8: Electron Configuration Battleship Lab

The hardest part about this activity was using the orbital configurations to name the elements we were trying to hit. This aspect of the game caused me to think about the names more, and gave me good practice on how to navigate the periodic table with orbital configurations. The repetitive nature of the game made me learn how to quickly identify the elements from their orbital configuration names.

Lab 6: Mole-Mass Relationship Lab

Lab 6: Mole-Mass Relationship Lab

The purpose of this experiment was to teach students the concept of stoichiometry. Stoichiometry is the process of using the chemical equation to calculate the relative masses of reactants and products involved in a reaction. This gives students an idea of what they should expect from reactions.

Data:

If you take a look at problem 4 you will see that the percentage is above 100. This unusual phenomenon can be attributed to the changed shape of the evaporation dishes. We had to change to glass beakers because the aluminum in the evaporation dish was reacting with the acid. The beaker was more narrow than the evaporating dish so the water condensed on the side and added mass because it did not fully evaporate.

Lab 5B: Composition of a Copper Sulfate Hydrate Lab

Lab 5A: Composition of a Copper Sulfate Hydrate Lab

Hydrate prior to heating it.

Hydrate after applying heat.

Calculations:

1. Mass of the hydrate used- mass of the evaporating dish (1.35g) subtracted from the mass of the evaporating dish and hydrate(2.25g) equaled to 0.900 grams.

2. Mass of the water lost- mass of evaporating dish and hydrate(2.25g) minus the mass of the evaporating dish and anhydrous salt(1.72g) equaled to 0.530 grams.

3. Percentage of water in the hydrate- divide mass of water lost (.530g) by the mass of hydrate used (.900g) to get 59%.

4. Percent error- |59-36|/36 *100 equals 38.9 percent error.

5. Moles of water evaporated was 2.94*10^-2. Moles of anhydrate that remained in the dish was 2.32*10^-5. Ratio of moles of CuSO4 to H2O was 13:1.

Empirical Formula: 1CuSO4 • 13H2O. The coefficient of the water molecule is not correct as indicated by the high percent error. Ours is much higher that it should be, and my estimate is that the real coefficient is around 5. We attribute the error to fluctuations on the scale while our team was measuring mass.

Lab 5A: Mole Baggie Lab

Lab 5A: Mole Baggie Lab

The purpose of this experiment was to apply our newly gained knowledge of moles and Avogadro's number, 6.02*10^23 to identify the substance that was inside a paper bag.

Our team was given a plastic bag with an unknown substance within it. The bag contained information regarding the number of representative particles it had in it. The bag was labeled B2 and it had 3.10*10^22 molecules inside of it. It also had the mass of the bag. The first step was to weigh the substance along with the bag and subtract their masses to determine the mass of the mysterious substance. The next thing our group did was to determine the number of moles in the substance, because this would be important later on. To find the number of moles we divided the number of molecules by Avogadro's number and we found there were .0515 moles of the substance in the bag. Next, we calculated the molar mass by dividing the number of grams of the substance by the number of moles. Finally, we compared the molar mass of the unknown substance to that of many other substances that were given to us and we determined that the mysterious substance was sodium chloride. Coincidentally, the other bag A1 also contained sodium chloride so we immediately were able to identify it based on its molar mass.

Lab 4A: Double Replacement Reaction Lab

LaB 4A: Double Replacement Reaction Lab

Well Plate with many chemicals: chemicals 1-4 are chemicals reacting with  zinc sulfate, chemicals 5-7 are chemicals reacting with copper sulfate, chemicals 8-9 are chemicals reacting with sodium phosphate, and chemical 10 is a chemical reacting with sodium carbonate.

The various chemical equations that took place in the reactions. The picture below shows the net ionic equations that took place in reactions 2-7. No reaction took place in 1,8,9 and 10.

Well, thats forty-five minutes of my life I can never get back...

This lab, in theory, was supposed to be relatively simple and straight forward. It consisted of mixing chemicals together and recording the reaction, and calculating the reaction's equations. However, the equations of the reactions proved to be quite challenging for me, and I easily became frustrated when it took longer than ten minutes. Something that surprised me during this lab was how difficult it was to tell if a reaction had taken place in some of the chemicals. Only after waiting for a few minutes was my group able to tell that a reaction had taken place at all. 

Lab 3: Nomenclature Puzzle

Lab 3: Nomenclature Puzzle

The primary goal of the nomenclature puzzle was to piece together a square puzzle with many formulas of the different types of compounds. The puzzle had formulas written on each side of the puzzle piece and the goal was to math the puzzle pieces with their corresponding parts. For example Oxygen dichloride would match with the formula OCl2. One of the biggest challenges while working on this puzzling puzzle was not accepting that we had made a mistake , because we were confident with our answer. This caused our team to lose time but it was only a minor setback. Another challenge was recalling the rules for some of the more complex formulas. My biggest contribution to the team was previous knowledge about elemental symbols and the division of labor in our group, one person would make the puzzle and check the formulas and the other two people would find the correct pieces, which resulted in the puzzle being completed very quickly.

Lab 2B: Atomic Mass of Candiu

Lab 2B: Atomic Mass of Candium

The purpose of the Atomic Mass of Candium Lab was to practice calculating atomic mass using the percentage of how abundant the isotope is. In the lab, we were given three different isotopes of the element cadmium: regular, pretzel, and peanut. We measured the mass of each type of isotope and counted the the amount of each type of the isotopes. Next, we determined the average mass of each isotope by dividing the total mass of the isotope by the number of each type of isotope. When we had the average mass of the isotopes we had to determine the abundance of each type. To do this, we counted all the samples of candium and used the number of isotopes to find the percentage. Then we used the formula below to calculate the average atomic mass; the average atomic mass of candium is 1.356 amu.

Question 1: The differences between the average atomic masses between groups is a result of the small sample size. Because of the small sample size, outlier data had a greater affect on the data, something which would not cause a problem if the sample size was large.

Question 2: The differences between the groups average atomic masses would be smaller if given a larger sample size, because outlying data would not have such a drastic effect on the results. For example, when scientists took the average atomic mass of elements they used a very large sample size and compared it to every form of the element on Earth.

The different isotopes of candium.

Question 3: No, because the average atomic mass is calculated after recording many samples of candium, so it would not have the same mass.

The element Candium on the periodic table.

Lab 2A: Chromatography Lab

Lab 2A: Chromatography Lab

Question 1:  It is crucial that only the wick be submerged in the water and that the water climbs up by capillary action so that the ink branches out and the color is aloud to spread out completely. If the whole filter paper was submerged, the result would be that the ink would not completely spread out and all the colors would not be revealed.

Question 2: Some of the variables that have an impact on what pattern of colors are produced are the distance of the ink marks from the center of the filter paper, the amount of ink used in a mark, the type of writing utensil that is used, and the brand of the marker or pen.

Question 3:  The black ink separates into the different bands of color because the black ink is comprised of different components and colors.

Question 4: The color yellow appeared in every lab groups chromatograph. The colors appear in similar orders because the pen's ink is of a similar composition. Another factor in the order of colors could be that the pens and markers are made from a single company.

Question 5: Only water soluble markers and pens were used in the experiment because permanent markers do not wash away easily in water, so water would not be an effective solvent for permanent markers. The experiment could be modified by changing the solvent from water to something that could dissolve the permanent marker.

Our best attempt at Chromatography

Lab 1B: Aluminum Foil Lab

Lab 1B: Aluminum Foil Lab Part II

Introduction: The purpose of the aluminum foil lab was to determine the thickness of a piece of aluminum foil. While conducting the experiment our lab group had to find the mass and volume of an aluminum cylinder in part I of the lab to determine the density of the material. This information would be a critical part of finding the required information regarding the foil. The next step was to measure the mass of the foil using a scale, and after possessing that information our team could find the volume of the foil by using the formula: volume equals mass divided by density or v=m/d. Then we could measure the length and width of the foil, and to find the height we could use the formula: height equals volume over length times width or h=v/l*w. This would give us the thickness of the aluminum foil.

Procedure: The materials that were crucial to the experiment were an aluminum foil, a ruler, a graduated cylinder, and a scale. The first step in order to derive the thickness was to establish the density of the foil. We did this using a aluminum cylinder in part one. We measured the cylinder on the scale and found that the mass was 105.3 grams. The next step was to find the volume of it so we displaced it in a graduated cylinder and our measurement for the volume was 38.0 milliliters. Using the formula d=m/v we could calculate that the density of the aluminum cylinder was 2.77 g/cm^3. Now that we knew the density we could precede to find the mass of the foil by using the scale, and we found that the mass was 0.41 grams. Now we could finally find the volume of the foil and by dividing the mass by the density we found that the volume was 0.15cm^3. Using our rulers, the next step was to measure the length and width of the foil. The length was 10.0 centimeters and the width was 9.55 centimeters. The final step was to substitute this information into the formula h=v/l*w to find that the thickness of the foil was 0.016 milliliters.

Data: The data for this experiment consisted of mainly the mass, volume, and density of the aluminum cylinder which was 105.3 grams, 38.0 milliliters, and 2.77 g/cm^3 respectively. The data for the aluminum foil was comprised of the length of 10.0 centimeters, the width of 9.55 centimeters, the mass of 0.41 grams, and the density of 2.77 g/cm^3.

Conclusion: In conclusion, the purpose of the lab to determine the thickness of a piece of aluminum foil was accomplished in one trial. There were no errors that had a noticeable outcome on the experiment, and if there were any errors they most likely were caused by measuring errors and significant figure errors. Our team learned that precision is required when measuring objects and that significant figures should always be checked. Our team also was reminded to properly clean up any materials left over and the workspace. For future labs similar to this one, changes I would make to improve the results would be to double check measurements and significant figures

Lab 1A: Density Block Lab

Lab 1A: Density Block Lab

Introduction: The purpose of the density block lab was to derive the value of the mass, the amount of matter in something, of a plastic block using only the density, the measure of the compactness of something.  and the volume, the amount of space a substance occupies, of the block. The provided materials were a ruler, a plastic block, and a sticker on the plastic block with the density written on it. We derived the volume by measuring the length, height, and width of the block, and then we multiplied it by the density to calculate the experimental mass.

Procedure: My lab partner and I were provided a ruler to measure the dimensions of the block, the density of the block, and the block itself. First we measured the dimensions of the block and found the mass. Then we multiplied the volume with the given density to find the mass. The last step was to measure the actual mass of the block with a scale and compare the two measurements. The first three trials our calculated mass was not close to the actual mass with our calculated mass ranging from eight to twenty percent. Our fourth and final trial gave us a more accurate answer that was only .29% off of the actual mass.

Data: Our final result from the Density Block Lab was only .29% difference from the actual mass and was very accurate.

Conclusion: Our lab team fulfilled the purpose of the lab by determining the mass of the plastic block using its density and volume. There were no significant problems or errors that occurred during the lab assignment other than possibly error regarding the readings of the ruler, however this would only influence the uncertain number in the significant figure by a minuscule amount. From the lab our team learned the importance of data recording and taking precise measurements while doing a lab assignment. The accuracy of the results depend on the accuracy of the measurements. For future investigations it would be advantageous to use a ruler that had even more precise measurements. The rulers that we were given measured to the tenths place, but a ruler that measured to the hundredths place would yield more accurate answers.