LAREDO COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Science Department
CHEM 1405 Laboratory
1

CHEMICAL REACTIONS: Water of Hydration A. Short Overview

Many common substances exist as solid ionic salts that contain water molecules embedded in thier crystal structures. This water is referred to as water of hydration, and can be removed from the crystals by heating, or dehydration. Such water commonly gives the hydrated salts different properties, such as color, than the anhydrous form. This is especially obvious when the metal cation is a member of the transition metals. In the first of four quantitative experiments involving chemical reactions (water of hydration, empirical formulas, limiting reagents, and heat of reaction) that you will perform this semester, you will determine the percent water present in an ionic salt. While this is an experiment some of you may have already done in a high school chemistry class, it is a valuable experiment because it reinforces the concept of percent composition. In this experiment you will be provided with a sample of CuSO45H2O (used in plant food), MgSO47H2O (Epsom salts), or FeSO47H2O, and asked to determine the experimental % water and the actual composition of the solid based upon the amount of water removed from the sample. Each sample can be identified by its color. The chemical equations for the reactions are CuSO45H2O (s) FeSO47H2O (s) MgSO47H2O (s) CuSO4 (s) + 5 H2O (g) FeSO4 (s) + 7 H2O (g) MgSO4 (s) + 7 H2O (g)

B. Procedure Exercise 1.
Percent Composition of a Hydrated Salt

Chemicals:

Hydrated Salts (CuSO45H2O (blue), FeSO47H2O (green), MgSO47H2O (white)), Propane (C3H8) Apparatus: evaporating dish, electronic balances, crucible tongs, scoop spatula, tripods, triangles, wire gauze, bunsen burner, sandpaper Safety Equipment: goggles, gloves, hood. Objectives: In this experiment you will learn how to: 1. heat a sample in a crucible with a Bunsen burner. 2. use the method of weight-by-difference to determine mass quantities. 3. convert grams to moles.

CHEM 1405 Lab

Water of Hydration

4.

determine the percent of water lost by heating a hydrated sample.

Your instructor will assign you a hydrated salt. Each student will heat one sample. On the data sheet, the data for your sample is placed in column listed Trial 1. Your partners data is listed in column(s) Trial 2 (and Trial 3 if a group of three). Use the same electronic balance for each weighing. Tare the balance each time to 0.000 g before weighing the evaporating dish. CAUTION: 1. 2. 3. 4. Tie your hair behind your head.

Obtain a Bunsen burner and tripod from the front of the lab. Place a wire triangle from your desk on top of the tripod. Clean your evaporating dish with soap and water, rinse with distilled water, and dry the evaporating dish with paper towel. Use your crucible tongs to place the evaporating dish on the triangle. Connect the Bunsen burner to the propane gas line with rubber hose. (CAUTION: Check the burner hoses carefully before lighting. Replace the burner hoses if they are old or cracked.) Turn on the gas and light the burner. Adjust the flame so that it is pale blue and does not appear yellow. (Yellow flames are caused by incomplete combustion and will leave soot on the evaporating dish; yellow flames are also cooler than blue flames.) Place the burner under the dish.

5.

Heat the evaporating dish until it is red-hot on the bottom for about 5 minutes. Use the tongs to place the dish on the desk, and allow it to cool to room temperature. (Caution: The evaporating dish will get very hot when heated. Do not touch the hot dish with bare hands.) Allow the dish to cool to room temperatures before weighing. The dish is cool enough to weigh when it feels cool as you pass your hand over it. Do not try to cool down the hot dish by running cold water over them; the porcelain dish will break. Also, do not set the hot dishes on your lab notebooks; they will burn through the notebook paper.

6.

Weigh the evaporating dish on the electronic balance to the nearest 0.001 g. Then use a spatula to add 2.5 3.0 grams of the assigned hydrated salt to the dish. Reweigh the evaporating dish to 0.001 gram. Replace the wire triangle with the wire gauze and place the evaporating dish on the wire gauze. Heat the evaporating dish gently for five minutes by placing the burner under the wire gauze. Replace the wire gauze now with the wire triangle and heat the dish strongly at red heat for an additional five minutes. Cool the crucible to room temperature and weigh the evaporating dish. The dish should weigh less than it did in step 7 due to the loss of water.

7. 8.

9. Reheat the evaporating dish on the wire triangle with a strong flame for another five minutes, cool and
reweigh. The weight after the two heating/cooling increments should agree within 0.005 g. If not, repeat the heating process for three additional minutes, followed by cooling and weighing.

CHEM 1405 Lab

Water of Hydration

10.

Clean the evaporating dish by dissolving the solid in tap water. Rinse the solution in the sink. Repeat the cleaning process with soap and water. Dry the evaporating dish with paper towel, and replace the dish in other assigned equipment to your desk. Return all borrowed equipment to the equipment cart at the front of the lab.

CAUTION: Be sure to turn the propane gas off when you finish.

D.

Disposal
There are no special disposal instructions for the experiment. All solutions may be discarded in the sink.

E.

Calculations
1. 2. 3. Determine the moles of salt in the sample by dividing the mass of the dehydrated salt by the formula weight. Determine the moles of water by dividing the mass of water lost by 18.015. Determine the percent water in the sample by dividing the mass of water lost by the mass of the hydrated salt and multiplying by 100%.

E.

Lab Report
Spreadsheet Open the spreadsheet "Water of Hydration" on the CHEM 1405 website. The URL for the website is http://www.laredo.edu/science. When you open the website, click on the link for "CHEM 1405". You will then click on the icon for the spreadsheet. Enter your data in the cells WITH BORDERS only. As you enter your values, the program will automatically calculate the masses, moles, and % composition. When you finish, print out the data and include in your lab report. A sample spreadsheet is provided on the next page.

Questions 1. 2. Determine the experimental % H2O for your samples. Determine the % H2O for the following empirical formulas: MgSO47H2O. CuSO45H2O, FeSO47H2O, and

CHEM 1405 Lab

Water of Hydration

3. It is possible that the experimental % H2O (question 1) may be significantly lower than the calculated
theoretical % H2O (question 2) for one of your samples. Provide a possible explanation for this.

Trial 1 Unknown number Mass of empty crucible & cover Mass of crucible, cover, and hydrated salt Mass of hydrated salt
18 18.245 19.965 1.720

Trial 2
48 21.882 23.954 2.072

Trial 3
27 18.625 20.593 1.968 g g g

Mass of crucible, cover, & dehydrated salt, final heating Mass of dehydrated salt Mass of water lost Moles of water lost Formula of dehydrated salt Molar mass of dehydrated salt Moles of dehydrated salt Moles water Moles dehydrated salt % water (experimental) % water in hydrated salt (theoretical) % error

19.324 1.079 0.641 0.035581 CuSO4 159.6 0.00676 5.26 37.3% 36.1% 3.3%

22.907 1.025 1.047 0.058118 MgSO4 120.37 0.00852 6.83 50.5% 51.2% 1.2%

19.770 1.145 0.823 0.045684 FeSO4 151.94 0.00754 6.06 41.8% 45.4% 7.8%

g g g mol

g/mol mol

% %

LAREDO COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Science Department
CHEM 1405 Laboratory
5

Water of Hydration
DATA SHEET Name: Partner(s) Date Section

Trial 1 Unknown number Color of unknown 1. 2. 3. Mass of empty crucible & cover Mass of crucible, cover, and hydrated sample Mass of sample Mass of crucible & dehydrated sample 1st heating 2nd heating 3rd heating (if necessary) Mass of dehydrated sample Formula of dehydrated salt Molar mass of dehydrated salt Moles of salt Mass of water lost Moles of water Moles water Moles salt Empirical Formula, hydrated salt Experimental % H2O Theoretical % H2O % Error ( ( ( g g g ) ) ( (

Trial 2 ) ) g g g ( (

Trial 3 ) ) g g g

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

g g g g ) g/mol mol g mol ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ (

g g g g ) g/mol mol g mol ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ (

g g g g ) g/mol mol g mol ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________

Instructors Approval Show all calculations on the back of the page.