Chemistry Lab no.

15

Sonia Kabra and Alix Lewis

How will changing the temperature of liquid propanone affect its vapor pressure when placed in a closed system?
27/8/2011

LPCUWC 8/27/2011

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of changing temperature on the vapour pressure of propanone when kept in a closed system (sealed container). APPARATUS: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Buchner flask (500 ml) Mercury thermometer Rubber stopper Water baths at 40, 50 and 60 degree Celsius. Also, ice bath. Pressure sensor Laptop (The pressure sensor is connected to the laptop.) Liquid propanone (10 ml) Measuring cylinder (10 ml)

THEORY: This lab will investigate how changing the temperature of a volatile liquid will affect the vapour pressure of the liquid. When the liquid is sealed inside a container, some of that liquid will evaporate into gas molecules to exert pressure on the container. At the same time, some of the gas molecules will condense back into the liquid. At some point, dynamic equilibrium will be reached where the rate of condensation and the rate of evaporation is the same. The pressure at equilibrium is called saturated vapour pressure and is constant for a fixed temperature. As temperature is increased the molecules gain energy. VARIABLES: a) Independent variable: The temperature of the set-up. This is to be controlled by submerging the container into a water bath. b) Dependent variable: The saturated vapour pressure. This will be monitored by a pressure sensor connect to a data logger. c) Controlled variables: 1

i. ii. iii.

Size of container: Use Bchner flasks of the same volume (preferably relatively small ones to reach equilibrium faster). Amount of liquid used: Use a measuring cylinder every time to measure out the volume of the liquid propanone. Extra pressure applied on the container: If using a cork, the pressure change which results from the force applied on the cork will cause a shift in the vapour pressure. Thus is can only be kept by trying to keep the pressure applied reasonable so far.

PROCEDURE: a) Prepare a set of 5 water baths of a range of temperatures: at 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 degrees Celsius. b) Start with a set of clean glassware. Put the rubber stopper on the Buchner flask. Connect the pressure sensor to the Bchner flask and the data logger. c) Record the room temperature. d) After 60 seconds carefully and quickly remove the stopper. Add in 1 cm3 of propanone into the Bchner flask. Replace the stopper to seal the flask. Log the pressure till 3 minutes. e) Keep the Buchner flasks in the water baths for at least 1 minute prior to recording pressure so that it reaches thermal equilibrium. e) Repeat steps a) to d) for all water baths of different temperatures and ice bath. DATA:

Time (seconds) Pressure (kPa) at 3 degrees celcius

Pressure(kPa) at 25 degrees celcius)

Pressure(kPa) at 39.80 degrees celcius Pressure(kPa) at 48.9 degrees Celcius Pressure(kPa) at 15.00 degrees Celcius

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240

100.192 100.113 100.055 99.965 99.947 99.907 100.192 104.696 104.815 104.970 105.114 105.291 105.378 105.497 105.630 105.749 105.836 105.955 106.052 106.135 106.232 106.315 106.405 106.496 106.589

100.834 100.841 100.809 100.802 100.841 100.867 100.895 111.306 113.159 113.596 113.938 114.238 114.501 114.667 114.901 115.251 115.334 115.500 115.803 116.001 116.181 116.362 116.462 116.603 116.895

100.733 100.823 100.895 100.762 100.740 100.794 100.802 100.834 101.761 108.497 111.007 112.994 114.696 116.062 117.277 118.327 119.135 119.863 120.620 121.395 122.070 122.629 123.317 123.923 124.439

100.971 101.040 101.014 101.040 101.108 101.180 100.174 113.235 116.084 118.157 119.913 121.395 122.917 124.644 125.950 127.201 128.553 129.660 130.519 131.427 132.275 132.913 133.476 134.063 134.723

98.952 98.512 98.213 97.985 97.827 97.719 97.618 97.430 97.326 105.010 106.856 107.224 107.451 107.686 107.837 108.017 108.176 108.320 108.432 108.598 108.713 108.857 108.991 109.121 109.218

Table 1 2

Graph 1 (In graph 1 series 1 represents 3.00 degrees Celsius, series 2 represents 25.00 degrees Celsius, series 3 represents 39.80 degrees Celsius, series 4 represents 48.90 degrees Celsius and series 5 represents 15.00 degrees Celsius.)

The following table is a measure of vapour pressure of propanol at various temperatures at 100 seconds. Temperature (degree celcius) 3 15 25 39.8 48.9 Table 2 Vapour pressure (kPa) 105.114 106.856 113.983 116.007 119.913

Graph 2

ERROR ANALYSIS: The following errors occurred while doing the lab The Buchner flask was not submerged fully in the water bath. While performing different trials the depths at which the flasks were submerged were different. Therefore, temperature inside the flasks was different from the water bath. The pressure applied on the rubber stopper was different every time. The pressure applied on the stopper causes a shift in the vapour pressure. This was meant to be kept in control. But, in an attempt to prevent the stopper to pop out of the flask, more pressure was required to be applied in trials after 25 C. This pressure applied was not equal every time. This lead to an increase in vapour pressure. As a result, we recorded overestimated values.

CONCLUSION AND EVALUATION: 5

The objective of this lab was to investigate the effect of changing temperature on the vapour pressure of propanone when kept in a closed system (sealed container). According to theory, temperature and vapour pressure are directly proportional to each other. As temperature increases the vapour pressure increases. Our results support this theory as graph 2 suggests, increase in temperature at a specific time (here, 100 seconds) leads to increase in pressure inside the flask. Due to time constraints, we couldnt record the pressure till it reaches equilibrium and compare the vapour pressures. But we assume that as the system reaches dynamic equilibrium, the vapour pressure recorded would also support theory. There is a sudden drop in these graphs around 60 seconds as we open the cork and pour the liquid in at that time. This causes a sudden drop in pressure. The graphs tend to be steep at around 70 seconds as liquid propanone inside the flask starts to evaporate. The intermolecular attraction between propanone molecules decreases and they evaporate. These molecules hit the surface of the flask causing an increase in pressure. After almost 100-150 seconds the gradient of the graph starts to reduce. This is a result of propanone molecules condensing and turning back to vapour again. When the rate of evaporation is equal to the rate of condensation dynamic equilibrium is said to be reached. Observing table 2 we can see that increase in temperature brought an increase in pressure. IMPROVEMENTS: The experiment should be repeated 2 more times to increase accuracy. A Buchner flask of a smaller volume should be used so that equilibrium can be attained in relatively less amount of time.