Applying Le Châtelier's Principle Lab

SCH4U0
Michael Mohamed
Due Date: Tuesday, November 18th

Purpose: To observe qualitative changes in various equilibrium reactions and to make inductions on the
changes taking place in the equilibria accounting for those changes.

Observations:

Part A:
2ab)
Name of Compound Normal Colour Colour Change with Colour Change with
NaOH(aq) HCl(aq)
K2CrO4(aq) Yellow Becomes slightly darker Becomes yellower
K2Cr2O7(aq) Orange Becomes yellower Becomes orangey

3ab)
Name of Compound Normal Colour Colour Change with Colour Change with
HCl(aq) NaOH(aq)
K2CrO4(aq) Yellow Becomes slightly orange Becomes yellower
K2Cr2O7(aq) Orange Becomes slightly yellow Becomes orangey

Part B
1ab)
Compounds Originally Initial Colour Colour Change with Colour Change with
Ba(NO3)2(aq) HCl(aq)
Kr2CrO4(aq) + NaOH(aq) Yellow Becomes opaque Increases transparency

2ab)
Compounds Originally Initial Colour Colour Change with Colour Change with
Ba(NO3)2(aq) NaOH(aq)
Kr2Cr2O7 + HCl(aq) Orange No effect Yellow and opaque

2H+(aq) + 2CrO4-2(aq) → Cr2O7-2(aq) + H2O(l)

Questions:
1a) 2H+(aq)+2CrO4-2(aq)→Cr2O7-2(aq)+H2O(l) is the balanced equation

1b) In part 2a of Part A, NaOH(aq) is added to the solution, which will add OH-(aq) ions to the solution.
These ions will react with the H+ ions on the reactant side to produce H2O molecules, these go to the
product side. Effectively the reactants have been reduced and the products increased. Depending on
whether the compound is of originally CrO4-2(aq) or Cr2O7-2(aq), either Cr2O7-2(aq) or CrO4-2(aq) will be
produced as a result of equilibrium shift. In the case of the CrO4, there was originally a very small
amount of CrO4-2 originally, but the overall concentration of the solution has been shifted, and as a
result while CrO4-2(aq) and Cr2O7-2(aq) were both produced, there was still more Cr2O4-2(aq) in the solution
than there originally was, leading to a change in hue to a more orangey colour (it should be noted that
the shift was not particularly significant when compared to the other). In the case of Cr2O7-2(aq), the same
shift in equilibrium occurs, however in this case although the concentration of Cr2O7-2(aq) is changed,
there was a very small amount of CrO4-2(aq) in the solution before the addition of the OH-(aq) ion than
before, and since the equilibrium shift involves a reduction in reactants and addition of products, the
equilibrium will shift to the side of the reactants creating a much higher percentage of CrO4-2(aq) as
compared to Cr2O7-2(aq); this shift creates the appearance of the solution becoming much yellower.

1ca) This is similar to the addition of OH- to the system, except that the H+ ions added from HCl(aq) don’t
react with anything, and are simply added to the reactant side of the equation. In this case, the product
side of the equation would increase in rate due to the equilibrium shift of more reactants being added.
In the case of CrO4-2(aq) solution, the product side of the reaction would be increased, but the change in
concentration again makes the CrO4-2(aq) content more visually apparent. In the case of Cr2O7-2(aq), the
increase in the product side is more apparent due to the hue of the original solution (overall, there are
still more Cr2O7-2(aq) molecules in the solution, and the equilibrium change by adding H+(aq) makes this
more apparent). The Cr2O7-2(aq) molecule production rate becomes higher due to the addition of H+(aq) on
the reactant side, increasing the orangey hue of the solution overall. It should be noted that because of
the ratio of moles being produced for Cr2O7-2(aq) as compared to CrO4-2(aq) is 1:2, and as a result more
CrO4-2(aq) becomes apparent with an equilibrium shift to the reactant side.

1d) This involves answering 1b) and 1c) for Part A 3ab) of the experiment. These repeat questions are
denoted by a ‘b’ rather than an ‘a’.

1bb) The changes involved in the initial addition were not very significant, likely because the addition of
an H+(aq) is not going to make significant changes in the equilibrium at first in either case due to the fact
that the concentration increase will cause an increase in production of the reactant for every 2H+(aq)
added to the reactants. In the case of CrO4-2(aq) , the orangey colour formed is only light because few
Cr2O7-2(aq) were formed on the whole due to the equilibrium shift, and there was still a fair increase in the
volume overall as several drops of HCl(aq) caused little effect. This increase in volume and decrease in
concentration overall of CrO4-2(aq) with an increase in concentration of Cr2O7-2(aq) is a result of its
equilibrium shift to the product side. In the case of Cr2O7-2(aq), there is already a very low amount of
CrO4-2(aq) in the solution, the addition of an H+(aq) ion has very little effect here; what it does cause is an
increase in concentration and therefore a diluting of the sampling of Cr2O7-2(aq) overall leading to the
yellowing colour.

1cb) The addition of the 5M concentrated NaOH(aq) lead to fairly apparent changes in color of the
solution. This adds an OH-(aq) ion which reacts with the H+(aq) ions previously added, forming water; the
reduction in H+(aq) concentration and increase in H2O(l) concentration causes a significant shift in the
equilibrium to the reactant side. This shift will cause much more CrO4-2(aq) to be formed out of the
reaction, causing the yellowing effect seen in the reaction. In the case of Cr2O7-2(aq), this reaction will only
cause some of the added H+(aq) ions previously added to react with the new OH-(aq) ions to form H2O(l);
this will cause the equilibrium to have more of both the products and reactants overall, and since there
are more products they will be favoured in the equilibrium as opposed to CrO4-2(aq).

2a) Compared to one another, BaCr2O7 as a compound is more soluble than is BaCrO4. This can be
observed by what happens in Part B of the experiment when Ba(NO3)2(aq) is added to the two mixtures.
In the case of K2CrO4(aq) and NaOH(aq), BaCrO4(s) was formed as can be seen by the murkiness resulting
from the opaqueness in the mixture after the addition. When Ba(NO3)2(aq) is added to K2Cr2O7(aq) and
HCl(aq), there is no apparent change in the solutions as they both appear to be clear. If there was a
change it was not visible, but unlike BaCrO4(s), BaCr2O7 did not form a precipitate implying that it is more
soluble.

2b) The equation given in Part B is the reaction that occurs between K2CrO4(aq) or K2Cr2O7(aq) and
Ba(NO3)2(aq) in a solution with both NaOH(aq) and HCl(aq). In both cases, the NaOH(aq) and the HCl(aq) will
ionize to form OH-(aq) and H+(aq) ions; these two ions will react to form water but only if certain
prerequisites are met. In the 1b) reaction, there is already OH-(aq) ions present along with BaCrO4(s)
molecules formed in the reactions 2NaOH(aq) + Ba(NO3)2(aq) → 2NaNO3(aq) + Ba+2(aq) + 2OH-2(aq) as well as
K2CrO4(aq) + Ba+2(aq) → BaCrO4(s) + 2K+(aq). The BaCrO4(s) constitute the opaqueness of the mixture, as it is a
precipitate. When the HCl(aq) is added, these will react with the OH-(aq) ions remaining in the solution to
form water. Also, it should be considered that the equilibrium noted in the observations begins to take
place along with the CrO4(aq)-2 in the solution. Because there are now hydrogen ions being used up
(reduced concentration) as well as an increase in H2O(l), the equilibrium is shifted to the reaction side
and produces more CrO4-2(aq) than it produces Cr2O7-2(aq). This will cause the solution to become yellower
and more opaque, however it should also be noted that just by adding the HCl(aq) the volume and thus
concentrations have been shifted, leading to a change in equilibrium and the transparency of the
solution overall. In the 2b) reaction, the Ba2CrO4(s) molecules haven’t been formed, the only apparent
difference was that it became less concentrated for all the ions in the solution. When the NaOH(aq) was
added, the same reaction to form NaNO3(aq) in the 1a) reaction took place, creating the equilibrium of
the solution when the Ba+(aq) ion reacted to form Ba2Cr2O7(aq). An equilibrium shift then took place
involving the reaction of H+(aq) and OH-(aq) to form H2O(l), again shifting the reaction to the reactant side,
and using up the Cr2O7-2(aq) in a reaction to produce more CrO4-2(aq) than there previously was; this will
make the solution yellower and opaque with the formation of Ba2CrO4(aq), which altogether explains why
the solution was both yellow and murky after the addition of NaOH(aq). Again, many of the atoms can be
overlooked in this reaction with the assumption made that some of them reacted with one another
given that all of the individual ions had been ionized in solution.

Conclusion: Overall, the application of Le Châtelier's Principle was very useful here for explaining many
of the colour changes taking place in Part A of the experiment and some of them in Part B, although the
formation of a precipitate did make it more difficult to see differences. When adding a new reactant into
a solution, the fact that the volume of the solution (and as a result the concentration of the reactants in
the solution) has been changed should be taken into account along with any reactions that may occur
between them. Taking these changes into account, Le Châtelier's Principle can be applied to understand
which side the reaction was shifted on; because the reactants and products were both of distinctly
yellow and orange colour respectively visible changes in equilibrium could be easily noticed.