Anthony Wang

Hour 1
Separating the Contents of the Aquifer - Lab Report
Purpose: To separate two substances (Potassium Nitrate and Copper Nitrate) from each other,
and the water they are in.
Background Information: Potassium Nitrate separates from water and re-crystallizes when
cooled. Basic knowledge on how to use the hot plate. Common sense. Also need to know how to
operate Buchner funnel, Side-Arm Flask, and suction faucet. Firmly attach Side-Arm Flask with
the special rubber hose to the suction faucet. Then attach Buchner funnel on top of the Side-Arm
Flask and make sure the funnel is sealed well. The suction faucet has water pouring out of it,
creating a vacuum in the flask and funnel, therefore making a vacuum filtration system.
Procedure:
1. Have safety form signed.
2. Get ready for lab: Have proper attire (close-toed shoes, safety goggles, long pants, no jewelry,
etc.). Get needed information from the teacher, go over procedure before actually starting the lab.
3. Take the mixture and container from the box.
4. Walk back to the lab station carefully, with the mixture.
5. Take a large beaker, and put ice in it.
6. Add rock salt to the beaker of ice
7. Add 100 ml of water to the mixture of rock salt and ice
8. Stir rock salt and ice water with glass stir rod until rock salt dissolves.
9. Take thermometer, measure the temperature of the ice/water/salt mixture, and make sure it is
somewhere between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius.
10. Fully immerse the Potassium Nitrate, Copper Nitrate, and water mixture in the ice/water/salt.
11. Keep it in that state for 10 minutes, or until you can noticeably see white crystals starting to
form at the bottom of the container.
12. Get a Buchner Funnel, Side-Arm Flask, and two pieces of filter paper.
13. Weigh filter paper
14. Set up Buchner funnel, Side-Arm Flask, and Filter Paper
A. Attach Side-Arm Flask to the special suction faucet.
B. Firmly seal the Buchner funnel to the Side-Arm flask
C. Gently set the two pieces of filter paper into the Buchner funnel, making sure they
are secure.
15. Turn on faucet ALL the way.
16. Make sure the suction faucet is working by putting your hand over the Buchner funnel and
seeing if there is any air movement.
17. Take out the Potassium Nitrate, Copper Nitrate, and water mixture from the ice/water/salt
mixture.
18. Dispose of ice/water/salt mixture.
19. Carefully open up the container holding the Potassium Nitrate, Copper Nitrate, and water
mixture.
20. Pour said mixture into the Buchner funnel, and supervise the mixture as it drips down into
the Side-Arm Flask.

21. Once the filtering process is done, take out the filter paper and the Potassium Nitrate crystals
from the Buchner funnel.
22. Place Potassium Nitrate crystals and wet filter paper on a watch glass to let it dry.
23. Pour remaining mixture of Copper Nitrate and water into a large evaporation dish.
24. Take out a hot plate, plug it in. Also get something to protect your hands from hot objects, if
you need to pick up the hot plate or evaporation dish.
25. Turn up hot plate to the medium setting.
26. Place the evaporation dish with the mixture onto the hot plate.
27. Closely supervise the mixture as it heats up.
28. Turn down heat, if need be, to prevent over-boiling.
29. If at any time the mixture is turning black, take it off the hot plate immediately.
30. If not, continue to boil the mixture until little to no water remains.
31. Let the Copper Nitrate/small amounts of water cool off.
32. Weigh the filter paper and Potassium Nitrate.
33. Weigh evaporation dish and Copper Nitrate.
34. Wipe off evaporation dish with a paper towel and throw the paper towel away.
35. Wash off evaporation dish and dry it.
36. Weigh evaporation dish
37. Dispose of Potassium Nitrate and filter paper, into an area the teacher has predestinated.
38. Properly clean all materials used in the lab.
39. Put them away, where you found it.
40. Wipe off lab table
41. Dry off lab table
42. Make sure all materials are in place, double check everything.

Data Table:
Qualitative

Quantitative

Mixture of Copper Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate, and water is blue.

After filtering out the Potassium Nitrate, the remaining mixture is still blue.
Potassium Nitrate crystals are very fine and white.
Salt makes the ice water noticeably colder.
The Copper Nitrate after evaporation seems to be slushy and blue, still.

Mixture and container weight: 46.26g

Weight of container: 18.77g
Mixture weight: 27.49g
Ice water temp: 3.2 degrees Celsius
Filter paper and Potassium Nitrate crystals: 2.29g
Filter paper weight: .28g each
Crystal: 1.7g
Weight of evaporation dish and Copper Nitrate mixture: 47.34g
Evaporation dish weight: 24.1g
Copper Nitrate and water mixture: 23.24g