Natalie Youssef

Isolating anhydrous inorganic salt through the evaporation of a hydrate

Pre-Lab Questions: 1. CuSO4 * 5H2O CuSO4 + 5H2O Molar Mass of CuSO4 * 5H2O = 249.62g Molar Mass of CuSO4 = 159.62g Molar Mass of 5H2O = 90.00g Expected Mass loss when one mole of CuSO4* 5H2O becomes anhydrous = 89.99g Expected Mass loss when 5 grams of CuSO4* 5H2O becomes anhydrous = 1.80g 2. The energy must be put into a system in order to break bonds and energy is then released when bonds are formed. By heating the copper sulfate pentahydrate we are adding energy and that energy breaks the bonds between the copper sulfate and the water. 3. If you added water to the anhydrous salt I would expect the hydrated salt to be formed. In addition I would draw a conclusion that when the hydrated salt takes the form of a solid compound, the solid compound would have a greater mass than the anhydrous salt we started with. Also, there would be a color change from white to blue. In addition, hydrates salts can dehydrate from being exposed to the air or Salts are soluble in water. Hydrate salts have an affinity for atmospheric moisture. This means that they absorb moisture from the air. If you added a bunch of water to the salt it would likely cause the salt to dissolve. In order to rehydrate the salt, it would be best to just let it sit in a humid environment. 4. See methods for design and procedure. Methods: In order to determine if the hydrate salt has become anhydrous, mass and color must be considered. To begin this procedure I first measured out a mass of 4.22g of copper sulfate pentahydrate on a scale and put the measured out solution in a crucible. Then a proportion was used to determine the mass of water in that 4.22g:

This means that the hydrate salt will become anhydrous when 2.15g of mass have been lost. In three-minute intervals I heated substances on hot plate at medium-high heat and measured the mass every three minutes until the mass was constant and unchanged. We also looked for a change in mass of 1.52g. This difference would indicate that the salt has become anhydrous.

Results: Table 1: Molar mass and actual mass of compounds used Compound Molar Mass MgSO4 * 7H2O 246.37g MgSO4 120.37g 7H2O 126.00g Compound Actual Mass MgSO4 * 7H2O 4.22g MgSO4 2.07g 7H2O 2.15g Table 2: Difference in mass over time of heated hydrate Trial Mass 1st 3.90g nd 2 3.89g rd 3 3.88g 4th 3.88g th 5 3.77g th 6 3.75g 7th 3.73g th 8 3.50g th 9 2.45g 10th 2.10g Difference in Mass -0.32g -0.33g -0.34g -0.34g -0.45g -0.47g -0.49g -0.72g -1.77g -2.12g

Table 1 shows the molar mass and actual mass of compound MgSO4 * 7H2O as well as the mass of each individual element by using a proportion. Table 2 portrays the difference in mass from our compound after heating in three-minute intervals. As the copper sulfate pentahydrate was heated overtime there was a decrease in mass from dehydrating the compound. Post Lab Questions: 1. See calculation on separate paper attached. 2. 2.15g 3. ((2.10g- 2.07g) / 2.07)*100= 1.45% error 4. The reason why the percent error was positive was because the final mass was slightly higher than the theoretical mass. In our lab we actually did 11 trials. However, we did not include the 11th trial our data, because at this point the salt was smoking (burning) and the mass was well below the theoretical mass. This suggests that some of the salt was burned off. So, it seems as if the theoretical mass was attained between trial 10 and 11. Not all of the water was removed at the end of trial 10, but the salt was burning by the end of trial 11. The actual masses are only as precise as our scale.

5. In order to decrease the percent error the salt could have been weighed more frequently such as every minute instead of every three minutes. Ideally, having a hot plate with scale built in it that would mass the salt while it was being heated would create more precision. 6. By adding water to the salt the salt become rehydrated. It was not necessary to put energy into the system in order to make that happen because energy is released when bonds are made. Energy input would be needed only to break the bonds, which was done when we heated the hydrate in order to remove the water. Honors Questions: b. Research why salts sometimes are hydrates. What chemical reasons are there for additional water molecules to bond as part of the crystal structure? Sometimes the chemical combination of salt and water form hydrates because a number of water molecules will combine with the ion of a salt in order to form a crystal. This means the salt is hygroscopic, meaning that it has an affinity to atmospheric moisture. Because water is polar the positive hydrogen end is attracted to the negative ion while the negative oxygens are attracted to the positive oxygens. Some salts have more than one hydrate. Hydrates are usually not very stable. Water can be removed from a hydrated crystal by heating it, causing the anhydrous salt to be left behind. In a salt such as magnesium sulfate, both ionic and covalent bonds are involved. An ionic bond is when one element donates its electrons to the more electronegative element. A covalent bond is when two elements equally share valence electrons in order to obtain a full octet. The bonds within the sulfate between sulfur and oxygen are covalent. This bond creates a charged molecule that bonds ionically with positively charged magnesium.