So I did a lab determining the chemical formula of a hydrate. We had to find the molecular formula of a hydrate of copper (2) sulphate, CuSO4 .xH2O. My observation table looks like this:
Mass of clean, dry test tube: 21.6g
Mass of test tube + hydrated copper (2) sulphate: 24.1 g
Mass of test tube + anhydrous copper (2) sulphate
The work I did:
Mass of total: 24.1g - 21.6g= 2.5g
Mass of CuSO4: 23.3g- 21.6g= 1.7g
Determine the percent by mass of water in your sample of hydrated copper (2) sulphate. This is what I did:
Percent by mass of water in CuSO4 .xH2O=
2.5g - 1.7g/ 2.5g x100= 32%
Do you expect the mass percent of water that you determined to be similar to the mass percent that other groups determined? Explain.
Not exactly. Other groups could have added more CuSO4 than us or added less. Other groups could have insufficiently heated the test tube and the weight could differ.
a) Calculate the number of moles of H2O:
Molar mass of H2O: 18.02 g/mol
Mole of H2O: 2.5g - 1.7g divided by 18.02g/mol = 0.044395 mol of H2O
b) Calculate the number of moles of CuSO4:
1.7g divided by 159.62 g/mol (the molar mass of CuSO4) = 0.01065 mol of CuSO4
c) Determine the ratio of moles of H2O of CuSO4 (really kinda sketchy about this one):
0.044395 mol of H2O divided by 0.01065 mol of CuSO4 = 4.16, so approximately 4.
0.01065 mol of CuSO4 divided by 0.01065 mol of CuSO4= 1 mol
So the mole ratio would be 4:1 ? I heard 3's and 5's rolling around the classroom and I'm really not sure if I'm doing this right.
I really appreciate the help!
If more or less CuSO4 was added into the test tube, would this affect my answer?
3 answers
If I have 5g out of 10 g sample, that's 50%.
Suppose you take 20 g sample, you will get 10 g of whatever which is still 50%.
b is calculated right.
c is calculated right. As Bob P pointed out the correct value is CuSO4.5H2O and it would have helped if you had used a balance with better accuracy (been able to read it to at least to one more place). One cause for low results is inadequate heating; i.e., not all of the water was driven off. In analytical chemistry we guard against that by heating, cooling, weighing once as you did, then heat again, cool, weigh again, and continue that until we get no change upon heating. That way we know all of the water is gone (at least at that tempeature).
Welcome to Jiskha and thank you for showing your work. That's the way to get answers quicker. By the way you omitted the mass of the CuSO4 and dish (from both post) but I assume that 23.3 you used in your calculation is that mass.