SOLUBILITY

EQUILIBRIUM OF
CALCIUM HYDROXIDE
A.F. BELEN1, K. SANTOS1, R. ARAMBULO 1 AND D. MONGE2
1
DEPARTMENT OF M INING, METALLURGICAL, AND M ATERIALS E NGINEERING , COLLEGE OF
ENGINEERING
2
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS , COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES , DILIMAN QUEZON CITY 1101, P HILIPPINES
DATE PERFORMED: SEPTEMBER 30, 2016
INSTRUCTORS NAME: MAE FAJICULAY

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION
Only some of the salt will dissolve
when a sparingly soluble solution is
added to water to form a saturated
solution and an equilibrium reaction
will take place.[a] For a hypothetical
salt, AxBy, it ionizes and has an
equilibrium equation given by:
AxBy(s) xAy+(aq) + yBx-(aq)

(1)

Just like any other equilibrium reaction

this one can be expressed by a
reaction quotient, Qc, and ion-product
expression Qsp. And, when the solid
attains equilibrium with xAy+ and yBxions, that is, when the solution
reached saturation, the equilibrium
equation can be
express in solubility product constant,
Ksp.[b] The extent in which the
dissolution reaction occurs is given by
the Ksp.[c] The solubility product if
equation 1 is given by the equation:

Solubility product is related to the

molar solubility of the sparingly
soluble salt. Molar solubility, s, is the
number of moles of the salt that is
dissolved in creating a 1 liter of
saturated solution of the salt.[c] By
stoichiometry, a saturated solution of
AxBy(s) has :

[Ay+]=xs;[Bx-]=ys

(3)

There are lots of factors affecting the

solubility of salts in aqueous solution;
temperature, solvent polarity,
presence common ion and presence of
diverse ions.[d]
Like other equilibrium constants the
Ksp varies with temperature as stated
by the the vant hoff equation

lnK =

where

H S
+
RT
R
H

reaction,

(4)

is the enthalpy of the

is the entropy of the

reaction, R is the gas constant which is

Ksp = [Ay+]x[Bx-]y

(2)

equal to 8.314

J
mol K , T is the

temperature and K is the solubility

product.
Polarity of solvent affects the solubility
of the salt because only polar solvent
dissolves polar solutes and non-polar
solutes only dissolve non polar solutes.
The solute will dissolve if the solutesolvent intermolecular attraction is
greater than the solvent-solvent and
solute-solute interaction.[e]
Effect of common ions affect the
solubility when the solution contains
one of the ions of the precipitate,
either the cation or the anion.[d]
According to Le Chateliers principle,
adding and ion will shift the
equilibrium to the left.
The solubility of salt is affected by the
diverse ion effect because as the total
ion increases, the ionic strength also
increases that makes the ions less
available for the precipitation reaction.
[e]
Ionic strength, , is defined as:

1
ci z 2i
2
i
(5)

where

ci

is the molarity of ion

i ,

z i is its charge, and the summation

is the overall ions present in the
system.
This experiment aims to determine the
solubility product of the dissolution of
calcium hydroxide and how the
various factors can influence it. Using
the results of the experiment one c
an point out the effect of these factors
in the solubility of the salt.
Ca(OH)2(s) Ca2+(aq) + 2OH-(aq)
(6)
METHODOLOGY

Six 250-mL beakers were labeled A to

F for each solution. 50 mL distilled
water was transferred to beaker A, B
and C; solution A remained at room
temperature which is 28.5 degree
Celsius, solution B was heated at 75
degree Celsius, while beaker C was put
in a cold water bath at 6 degree
Celsius. 50 mL of 0.10 M CaCl2 at room
temperature was transferred to beaker
D, 50 mL of 0.50 M KCl at room
temperature to beaker E and 45 mL
distilled water plus 5mL 95% ethanol
at room temperature to beaker F.
Ca(OH)2 was added to each solution
while stirring vigorously until there
were no solids dissolved or the
solutions reached saturated state. The
solutions were stirred for an additional
5 minutes and the suspension was left
for 10 minutes. The solutions were
filtrated using a fluted paper. The
receiving flasks for B and C are of the
same temperature as the suspensions
which is 75 and 6 degree Celsius
respectively.
25-mL aliquot of each solution of the
filtrate was transferred to a 125-mL
Erlenmeyer flask and 3 drops of 1%
phenolphthalein was added to it as an
indicator. Vinitial of the burette was
recorded. Each solution was titrated
with 0.10 M HCl. The titration went on
until the phenolphthalein color which
is fuchsia pink turned colorless. V final
was recorded and Vinitial was subtracted
from it to get the Vtit. Each step was
performed for 2 trials.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
There are some limitations of the Ksp
concept. All salts has a Ksp and the
expression for a highly soluble ionic
compound must not base on the

concentrations
but on the
activities of
the ions. Here
are some of the factors that might
affect the solubility product constant:
(1) temperature, (2) polarity of
solvents, (3) common ion effect and
(4) diverse ion effect.

System
A
D

save(mol/L)
2.15x10-2
1.14x10-2

Table 1. Molar solubility of systems A,

B and C
Table 1 shows the molar solubility of
systems A, B, and C at a given
temperature. The order of the systems
with increasing temperature is C, A, B;
with increasing molar solubility is C, B,
A. Hypothetically, solubility increases
with temperature [d] but the data didnt
show that.
Table 2. Molar solubility of systems
A and F

f(x) = - 797.31x - 9.51

R = 0.03

System A is pure distilled water while

system F has 45mL distilled water and
5mL 95% ethanol. Water is a polar
solvent, ethanol is less polar than
water [g] then system A is more polar
than system F. Ca(OH)2 is polar and by
the rule of thumb, like dissolves like.
More Ca(OH)2 will dissolve in than in F
because A is more polar. Table 2 shows
that system A has a higher molar
solubility than F therefore it can be
concluded that if the solute is polar
then the more polar the solvent the
higher the solubility.

Table 4. Molar solubility of systems A

and D

System

save(mol/L)

Temperatur
e (C)

2.15x10-2

28.5(RT)

9.55x10-3

75

6.69x10-3

Common ion also has an effect on the

solubility. System D has a common ion
with the salt Ca(OH)2 which is the
cation Ca2+ because of CaCl2 while
S
Syste
Trial (mol/L save(mol/L)
m
)
1
0.022
A
2.15x10-2
2
0.021
1
0.0175
F
1.67x10-2
2
0.016
system A has pure distilled water as
solvent. Table 4 shows that adding a
common ion decreases solubility and it
can be backed up by Le Chateliers
principle adding an ion will shift the
equilibrium to the left and will form
more precipitate.[h]
Table 5. Molar solubility of systems A
and E
System
save(mol/L)
( M )
A
E

0.066
0.566

2.15x10-2
2.39x10-2

Diverse ion has an effect on solubility

and governed by the ionic strength it
provides to the reaction system.
System E has diverse ions K+ and Clfrom KCl while A has pure distilled
water as solvent. Table 5 shows that

as the ionic strength increases the

solubility increases. By the uncommon
ion effect or salt effect or diverse ion
effect the addition of an ion that is
different from those resulting to the
dissolution of substance increases
concentration in water as well as its
ionic strength. Interaction among ions
tends to reduce their effective charges
making them less reactive and this will
result to higher concentration of ions
to reach equilibrium state and because
of this the solubility of the salt will
increase.[f]
Figure 1. Plot of ln K vs 1/T of
systems A, B, and C

that has 5.04% error compared to the

Systems A, B and C are same set-ups

but of different temperatures. Ksp can
be computed using vant hoff equation
and the equation of the graph which is
y = -797.31x - 9.5138 where y is ln K,

Titration was done so the calculation

for the concentration of OH- will be
possible as well as for the Ksp. And
phenolphthalein was added to indicate
that the reaction reached its
equivalence point.

-797.31 is

H
, x is
R

1
298 K

-9.5138 is

S
R . By computation,

and

the experimental Ksp is

6

5.084382798 10

that has a 7.6%

error compared to the theoretical

6

5.5 10

[h]

. Using the same

relationship, enthalpy and entropy can

be calculated which are

6.62883534

kJ
mol

that has a 101%

error compared to the theoretical

kJ

986.1 mol

and

79.0977332

J
mol

theoretical -83.39 mol

respectively.

From the values obtained, the reaction

is an exothermic reaction but
theoretically it is endothermic and by
the value of entropy the products is
more in order than the reactants.
The experiment was done in different
temperatures, or solvent, or has
common ion, or has diverse ion to
know if these factors affect solubility
and in what way.

There are some errors that leads to

the deviation of experimental and
theoretical values. One is poorly
measured HCl solution that may
increase or decrease the value of the
experimental Ksp. Error in deciding if
the solution is already saturated or not
that may may also increase or
decrease the Ksp. Another error that
happened when titrating, wrong value
of the volume cause by wrong reading
or over titration, increase in
-

V tit

will

increase [OH ], increase s and will also

increase Ksp. The volumes of solution is
crucial because an increase in volume
will increase the concentrations of ions
as well as the Ksp.
CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS