Creating Solutions of Standard Molarity Kayla McCurry Lab Partner: Anesia Jones Chemistry Lab 1251-021 February 22,

2014

Introduction: This experiment that I am going to talk about is called Creating Solutions of Standard Molarities. I think at the end of this experiment I will know how to create solutions from standard molarities. The main purpose of this experiment is to learn how to use a Spec 20 instrument, learn about concentrations, molarities, the Beer Lambert law, and detecting how close the standard Copper (II) solution is to the made Copper (II) solution. For this experiment you need to know what each of these terms mean. The Spec 20 instrument can also be called a colorimeter; it measures the absorption of light in the visible spectrum that we see as color. Whenever you use the Spec 20 instrument you can find out the absorbance and the transmittance. To find the Transmittance you use %T = I/I0 * 100. To find the absorbance you use 2 log(%T). A concentration is a ratio and it describes the measurement of one substance to the measurement of another substance. Molarity (M) states the number of moles of solute present in the amount of liters of a solution. The equation can be written as Molarity (M) = moles of solute/ liters of solution. The Beer Lambert Law states that there is a relationship between the amount of light absorbed by a colored substance and the concentration of that particular substance. You can use the equation y = mx+b for the Beer Lambert Law where the y stands for the absorbance, the m is the slope of the line, the x is the concentration and the b equals 0. These are the main things that are needed to complete the experiment. Procedure: For the experiment there were ten small test tubes, a 100 mL beaker, a 400 mL beaker for waste, a 50 mL graduated, a 10 mL graduated cylinder, Spec 20 Instrument, distilled water,

copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate, an unknown concentration of copper (II) sulfate, and 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, 0.05 M of copper(II) sulfate. The 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, and 0.05 M of copper (II) sulfate were placed into four small test tubes and labeled what they were (0.5 M, etc.). One more test tube was filled with just distilled water. The unknown concentration was placed into another small test tube and labeled. In the 100 mL beaker two grams of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate were added to the beaker. 20mL of distilled water was added to the beaker and mixed up until the solid was all the way dissolved. The mixture was placed into the 50mL graduated cylinder and distilled water was added to that mixture until it was filled to the 20 mL line. 8 mL of the mixture was poured into the 10mL graduated cylinder and then poured into an empty test tube and labeled 0.5 since it was the first mixture made (the order would then be 0.2, 0.1, and 0.05). (The value I made was not that close to the standard solution that was already made, there was a 15.7% error). In the 50mL graduated cylinder distilled water was added to the cylinder to the 20mL line again and the steps were repeated and this happened a total of four times. (Whenever I did this experiment all of my made solutions had a really high percent error except for the 0.05 M which only had a 1.39% error). Ten test tubes were filled and taken over to the Spec 20 instrument. The Spec 20 instrument was set to 600nm. The test tube with distilled water was placed into the instrument and set the transmittance to 100%. The first test tube with a solution (does not matter which one you choose first) was placed into the instrument and the percent transmittance and absorbance was recorded from this Spec 20 instrument. The test tube with distilled water was placed into the instrument again to check that it was still at the 100% transmittance. The next test tube was placed into the instrument and the numbers were recorded. The distilled water test tube was placed into the instrument again; this is repeated every time before a new test tube with a solution in it was added. The rest of the test tubes were all added to the Spec 20 instrument and

the numbers were all recorded. The experiment was complete as soon as all of the apparati were cleaned and put away.

Results: Calibration curve: This chart is made from the Absorbance and Concentration that is from the made solutions. The equation y=1.0662x + 0.0257 helps us find out the actual concentration of each solution. The R2 value is supposed to be really close to 1, if the number is close to 1 that means the information is reasonable and makes sense. My R2 value is really close to 1 so I think my information is reasonable.

Absorption of Copper(II) Sulfate Solution

0.6 0.5 Absorbance 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 Concentration (mol/L) y = 1.0662x + 0.0257 R = 0.9778

Table 1: This table was filled in according to what the Spec 20 Instrument said that the percent transmittance and absorbance was. You can also find out the Absorbance by using the equation 2-log(%T).

Concentration of Standards(M) 0.05 0.1 0.2 0.5

%T

Absorbance

87.6% 75.6% 51.6% 28.6%

.057 .121 .287 .544

Table 2: This table was also filled in according to what the Spec 20 Instrument said. The reason that this table is different from the table above is because this one is the solutions that I made and the ones above are the solutions that were already made. Concentrations of the Made Solutions (M) 0.05 0.1 0.2 0.5 73.8% 62.4% 46.6% 29.0% .133 .205 .332 .538 %T Absorbance

Table 3: This table is about the unknown solution that we know nothing about. I got the percent transmittance and the absorbance from the actual Spec 20 Instrument. I got the Concentration from the equation off of the calibration curve. The equation is y = 1.0662x + 0.0257. You plug the absorbance .339 in for y and then solve for the x and that is how you get the concentration. Knowing this information I figured out that the unknown was a 0.2 Molarity solution.

Solution Unknown

%T 45.8%

Absorbance .339

Concentration (M) .294 M

Table 4: This table is used to find the actual concentrations of the solutions that I made. You can find the actual concentration by using the equation from the calibration curve. The equation is y = 1.0662x + 0.0257. The y is the absorbance and the x is what you are trying to find which is the actual concentration.

Concentrations of the Made Solutions (M) 0.05 0.1 0.2 0.5

Absorbance

Actual Concentration

.132 .205 .332 .538

.099 .168 .287 .480

Table 5: This table is used to try and find the calculated percent error that happened in the experiment. The concentration of the standard solution is the percent transmittance that you get from the Spec 20 instrument and the concentration of the made solution is the percent transmittance that you also find from the Spec 20 instrument. To find the calculated percent error you use the equation % error = Absolute value (measured value actual value) / actual value * 100.

Solution Number

Concentration of Standard Solution

Concentration of Made Solution 73.8%

Calculated % Error

87.6%

15.7%

2 3 4

75.6% 51.6% 28.6%

62.4% 46.6% 29.0%

17.5% 9.69% 1.39%

Table 6: This table is used to find the percent error from the absorbances that the Spec 20 instrument gave us. We took the absorbance of the standard solution and of the made solution and entered it into the table. To find the calculated percent error we used the same equation as above % error = Absolute value (measured value actual value)/ actual value * 100. This is how I calculated each of the percent errors.

Solution Number

Absorbance of Standard Solution

Absorbance of Made Solution .133 .205 .332 .538

Calculated % Error

1 2 3 4 Discussion:

.057 .121 .287 .544

133% 69.4% 15.6% 1.10%

In each of these tables the information that is in there is very significant. Each table or graph tells how well the experiment was performed or how bad the experiment was performed. The calibration curve was were significant because it showed that my information was pretty good since my R2 value was pretty close to the number one, which is where it is supposed to be. The equation that we received from this calibration curve was very important because the equation helped us to find the actual concentrations which were found in tables 3 and 4. In table

1 the information was really accurate because we used the solutions that were already made to find the absorbance and the percent transmission. Having these numbers helped us to find the percent error in tables 5 and 6. In table 2 we took our made solutions and found out the percent transmittance and the absorbance of each solution. In table 3 we were trying to figure out exactly what the unknown solution is, knowing the information in table 1 we could figure out what the unknown solution is. The unknown solution was a 0.2 Molarity solution since the percent transmittance and the absorbance were closest to the 0.2 Molarity. In table 4 we had to find the actual concentration which showed me how far off I was whenever I did the calculations. My actual concentrations were supposed to be really close to the concentrations 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, and 0.05, but my concentrations were not that close. In tables 5 and 6 we were trying to figure out the percent error to see if my information was actually correct or even close to what the correct answer should be. Whenever I did the percent errors I found out that my calculations were far off from the actual calculations. The reason they could be so far off is because whenever we made the solutions we might not have added enough water to each solution or we did not fix it up enough each time. Another reason they could be far off is because the Spec 20 Instrument is very sensitive and could have moved a little bit to change the percent transmittance. Conclusion: Throughout this experiment I discovered that you can make solutions, test them to find out there absorbance and percent transmittance and you can also figure out that as long as your R2 value is close to 1 your information is pretty accurate. In the beginning I assumed that we would only learn how to make solutions but I figured out that is not the only thing that I learned from this experiment as I have stated above. I found this experiment to be kind of easy but

frustrating because my numbers did not come close to the numbers that they were supposed to be. Sample Calculations: