Copper Reactions

Justine Joyce C. Narvaez

Bachelor of Science in Biology Major in Human Biology College of Science De La Salle University - Dasmarias Dasmarias City Philippines

ABSTRACT

In this activity, principles of Theoretical, Actual, and Percentage yield were demonstrated by the subjection of Copper wire into a series of chemical reactions that involved different compounds. Five sets of chemical reactions were performed in the experiment. Under the fume hood, Nitric acid was first added to the Copper pieces placed in a beaker. Distilled water was added to the reaction mixture when Copper was totally dissolved. From the resulting reaction mixture, Copper nitrate in aqueous state was formed and was later added to Sodium hydroxide. Copper hydroxide was synthesized from the latter reaction. The Copper hydroxide was subjected to heat and was allowed to boil. Copper oxide and Dihydrogen monoxide in gas form were formed after the heating process of Copper hydroxide. The Copper oxide, characterized as a black precipitate, was filtered using a filter paper. The filter paper containing Copper oxide was placed inside a 250 ml beaker and was later added to Sulfuric acid. Water and Copper sulfate were formed when the Copper oxide was allowed to react with the Sulfuric acid. Lastly, the Copper sulfate was added with a Zinc metal. The Zinc metal was allowed to be dissolved in the liquid Copper sulfate. Solid particles were formed alongside with an aqueous Zinc sulfate. The solid particles were the retrieved Copper. Zinc sulfate was decanted from the copper particles. Later, Methanol and Acetone were added to the Copper particles inside the beaker in order to wash them. After washing with acetone, the beaker containing the retrieved copper was subjected to a water bath to totally dry the solid Copper. The Copper formed was again weighed using the analytical balance. The last part of the experiment involved calculation of the percentage yield. The mass of recovered copper (0.6307 g) was divided by the mass of copper wire (1.0601 g) then the quotient was multiplied by 100, which had given the percentage yield of 59.49%.

INTRODUCTION
Copper is a reddish brown nonferrous mineral which has been used for thousands of years by many cultures. The metal is closely related with silver and gold, with many properties being shared among these metals. (1) Copper forms a rich variety of compounds with oxidation states +1 and +2, which are often called cuprous and cupric, respectively. It does not react with water, but it slowly reacts with atmospheric oxygen forming a layer of brown-black copper oxide. In contrast to the oxidation of iron by wet air, this oxide layer stops the further, bulk corrosion. (2) Copper, silver and gold are in group 11 of the periodic table, and they share certain attributes: they have one s-orbital electron on top of a filled d-electron shell and are characterized by high ductility and electrical conductivity. The filled d-shells in these elements do not contribute much to the interatomic interactions, which are dominated by the s-electrons through metallic bonds. Contrary to metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper. (3) Synthesis chemical reactions, like Copper reactions demonstrate the concepts of theoretical, actual, and percentage yields. It was assumed that after the series of chemical reactions in the experiment, the mass of Copper recovered will be close to the value of the mass of Copper wire used prior to subjecting it to any chemical reaction. Percentage yield is the ratio between the actual yield and the theoretical yield multiplied by 100%. It indicates the percent of theoretical yield that was obtained from the final product in an experiment. (4) Percentage yield can be calculated using the mass of the actual product obtained and the theoretical mass of the product calculated using the balanced equation of the reaction. (4)

Percentage Yield =

Mass of Actual Yield x 100 Mass of Theoretical Yield

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A Copper wire was used in the experiment. First, it was cut into small pieces. The cut Copper pieces were weighed using an analytical balance. A 250 ml beaker was also weighed using the balance. After such, the copper pieces were placed on the 250 ml beaker. The beaker with copper pieces was set inside the fume hood (5). Next, 4.0 ml of 16 M HNO3 was measured using a graduated cylinder under the hood. It was added to the beaker with copper. After the copper wire has already dissolved, distilled H2O was added to the beaker until is half full. Afterward, the beaker was removed from the hood (5). 30 ml of 6M NaOH was measured and was later added to the reaction mixture. The mixture was stirred and placed over a Bunsen burner for heating. Two pieces of boiling chips were placed on the reaction mixture. The solution was heated until it boiled. It was continually stirred (5). The mixture, while hot, was filtered using a filter paper. The black precipitate that was collected using the filter paper was washed using 100 ml very hot distilled water. 15 ml of 6 M H2SO4 was measured using a graduated cylinder. The filter paper with black precipitate was dissolved using the sulfuric acid inside a 250 ml beaker. The black precipitate was dissolved thoroughly until no trace precipitate can be observed (5). Inside the fume hood, a piece of Zinc metal was added into the reaction mixture. It was stirred until the Zinc metal was dissolved. After small particles were already formed, the beaker was removed from the fume hood. It was allowed to cool to room temperature. When the mixture was already cool, the solid particles that were formed were collected using decantation (5). 10 ml of methanol was measured and was added to the beaker with the formed solid particles. Afterward, the methanol was removed using decantation. 10 ml of acetone was added to the solid particles and was later decanted (5). Lastly, the beaker was heated over a water bath until the solids were totally dry. The recovered solid particles (copper) and the beaker were weighed using the analytical balance. The percentage yield was computed using the collected data (5).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Initial mass of Copper wire Mass of recovered copper and beaker Mass of beaker Mass of recovered copper Percentage yield 1.0601 g g g 0.6307 g 59.49 %

Percentage Yield =

Mass of recovered copper Mass of copper wire 59.49%

x 100

6. Describe the reaction of Copper with Nitric acid. When copper was added with Nitric acid, there was formation of a bluishgreen liquid and an evolution of reddish brown gas was observed.

7. Describe the reaction of aqueous copper nitrate with sodium hydroxide. A blue colored solution was formed and a pale blue paste was produced.

8. Describe what happens when an aqueous solution of copper (II) hydroxide is heated. A black precipitate was formed.

9. Describe what happens when copper (II) oxide is dissolved in 6M sulfuric acid. A bluish-green solution was formed.

10. Describe what happens when Zinc metal is added to an aqueous solution of

copper (II) sulfate. When Zinc metal was added to an aqueous solution of copper (II) sulfate a gas evolved and red colored particles were formed. The solution turned into red and the Zinc metal was dissolved.

Cu (s) + 4HNO3 (aq)

Cu(NO3)2 (aq) +NO2 (g) +H2O (l)

Inside the fume hood, when the small pieces of copper inside the beaker were added with Nitric acid, a bluish green colored solution was formed. This bluish green colored liquid is Copper nitrate. Alongside the formation of Copper nitrate, Nitrogen dioxide, a reddish brown gas evolved. Nitrogen dioxide is a toxic gas such that the addition of Nitric acid was done under the fume hood. The bluish green color of Copper nitrate is characteristic of Copper (II) ion in water solution. Cu(NO3)2 (aq) +2NaOH (aq) Cu(OH)2 (s) + 2NaNO3 (aq)

What happened next was the formation of hydroxide. From the previous reaction, Copper nitrate that was formed was added with Sodium hydroxide resulting to the formation of Copper hydroxide and Sodium nitrate. Copper hydroxide is characterized to be the pale blue gelatinous solid that was formed. The Sodium nitrate on the other hand is the aqueous solution. Cu(OH)2 (s) + CuO (s) + H2O (l)

The Copper hydroxide that was formed from the previous reaction was placed above a Bunsen burner for it to be heated and continually stirred. After heating, the black colored precipitate was the result. Water in liquid form was also formed during the heating of Copper hydroxide. In order to filter the Copper oxide from the water, a filtration set up using the filter paper was used. 100 ml of very hot distilled water was used in order to filter the Copper oxide. Copper oxide was collected on the filter paper. CuO (s) + H2SO4 (aq) CuSO4 (aq) + H2O (l)

After having filtered the copper oxide, it was then placed on a 250 ml beaker where it was dissolved using Sulfuric acid. When Sulfuric acid was added on it, Copper sulfate in aqueous form and water were formed. It was observable that the formation of a bluish colored Copper sulfate can be noted.

CuSO4 (aq) + Zn(s)

ZnSO4 (aq) + Cu(s)

The last step was the regeneration of copper. Again, done inside the fume hood, Copper sulfate was added with a piece of Zinc metal. A gas evolved and the Zinc metal was dissolved. Solid particles were formed in the lower portion of the beaker. This was the retrieved Copper. The liquid formed was Zinc sulfate. After the Zinc was totally dissolved, the resulting solid particulates were collected using decantation. The Zinc sulfate was removed from the solution. The retrieved copper was washed with Methanol and then decanted. A second washing was done using acetone. Methanol and acetone washing was done in order to remove the remaining non-copper particles formed in the chemical reaction. After acetone was decanted from the retrieved copper, the beaker

containing Copper particles was heated using a water bath. This was done in order to evaporate all the remaining acetone from it. The retrieved copper was again weighed using the analytical balance.

After doing the whole experiment, we were able to compute the percentage yield of copper by following the formula: Percentage Yield = Mass of recovered copper Mass of copper wire x100 x 100

= 0.6307g 1.0601g = 59.49%

We were able to get a percentage yield of 59.49%.

REFERENCES:

(1) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-copper.htm (2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper (3) George L. Trigg; Edmund H. Immergut (1 November 1992).Encyclopedia of applied physics. 4: Combustion to Diamagnetism. VCH Publishers. pp. 267 272.ISBN 9783527281268 (4) http://danielleamorim.tripod.com/ (5) Samonte, J.L. Figueroa L.V. General Chemistry Laboratory Manual 3rd ed. 2007. C and E Publishing, Inc. Philippines, Quezon Avenue.