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Stoichiometry Airbag Lab Report

Riverside Poly High School

Citlally Velazquez

Mrs. Stitz

Chemistry p.2

22-23 March 2018

Lab partners include; Cindy, Aaron, Alan, & Jonathon

Introduction
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My assigned lab group and I created a small scale airbag out of zipper baggies using the

chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar to create the CO2 gas needed to inflate the

airbag (zipper baggies) . We were trying to make our small scale airbag as similar to the real deal

as possible. Our restrictions were a limited number of supplies provided, and the weight of the

baggie could not exceed 12 grams. Our overall objective was to maximize the volume of the

baggy. Our hypothesis was that in order to get our baggy to meet the weight restriction we had to

use more baking soda then vinegar, also that we would not completely fill up the baggy with the

limited raw material.

Equipment & Material

● Three clear zip lock bags

● 10 ml graduated cylinders

● Five grams of baking soda

● 30 mL of vinegar

● Two pipettes

● Gram scale

● Disposable open container (weighing boat)

Procedure

1. Label zipper bags 1, 2, and 3 to represent each trial.

2. Weigh the mass of your zip lock bags and record all three results onto your data table.

3. For each trial record the mass of baking soda and vinegar being used and write data

down onto data table.

4. When pouring materials into ziplock bag one partner will use their fingers to separate the

baggie into two sides and pour baking soda into one side and vinegar into another.
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Another group member will close zip the bag making sure to get rid of the air, once bag

is closed mix ingredients together.

5. Before moving onto a trial make sure to complete all stoichiometry calculation, and have

your teacher check calculations before attempting next trial.

6. Do not discard any airbags until your best airbag is checked by teacher.

Data

Measurements for Trials

Trial # Mass of Empty Mass of Volume of Mass of Bag +


Zipper Bag NaHCO3 H(C2)(H3)O2 NaHCO3 +
(baking soda) (vinegar) H(C2)(H3)O2

1 2.3 g .3 g 2.5 g = 5.1

2 2.3 g 4.1 g 8.9 g = 14.5 g

3 2.3g 8.2 g 3.6 g = 14.8 g

Our data shows the weight of our raw material, along with The results of our chemical reactions

for each trial.

Data Analysis

Trial #1 Results of first Trial

1𝑚𝑜𝑙 22.4 𝐿
. 3𝑔 𝑁𝑎𝐻𝐶𝑂 3 × × = .08 𝐿 𝐶𝑂 2
84 𝑔/𝑚𝑜𝑙 1

2.5ml 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻3 𝑂2 × 1.01 = 2.5 × 0.05 = .13𝑔 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻3O 2

1𝑚𝑜𝑙 1 22.4𝑙
2.5g 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻 3O 2 × 60.05𝑔/𝑚𝑜𝑙 × 1 × =.93LCO 2
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The beginning and ending units were given to us, so in order to go from grams to liters we had

to do conversion through stoichiometry. Since we were starting off with grams a form of mass
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we needed to find out the molar mass and mole ratio. Our first trial was our least successful so

we tried adding more vinegar then baking soda.

Trial #2 Results for second trial

1 𝑚𝑜𝑙 1 22.4 𝐿
4.1𝑔 𝑁𝑎𝐻𝐶𝑂 3 × 84 𝑔/𝑚𝑜𝑙 × 1 × =1.1 CO 2
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2.6ml H𝐶2 𝐻 3 × 1.01 = 8.68 × 0.05 = .4343𝑔 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻3 𝑂 2

1𝑚𝑜𝑙 1 22.4𝑙
2.6g 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻3 𝑂 2 × 60.05𝑔/𝑚𝑜𝑙 × 1 × =3.2LC𝑂2
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For our second trial we tried adding more raw material, because we saw that we had a lot to still

work with. Our mistake was adding too much vinegar. Our results show that we did not meet the

weight limit.

Trial #3 Results for third trial

1𝑚𝑜𝑙 1 22.4
8.9g 𝑁𝑎𝐻𝐶𝑂3 × 8.4𝑔/𝑚𝑜𝑙 × 1 × = 2.37𝐿𝐶𝑂2
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3.6ml 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻3 𝑂2 × 1.01 = 3.636 × 0.05 = .1818𝑔 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻3 𝑂2

1𝑚𝑜𝑙 1 22.4
3.6g 𝐻𝐶2 𝐻3 𝑂2 × 60.05𝑔/𝑚𝑜𝑙 × 1 × = 𝐿𝐶𝑂2
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Our third trial was our most successful. We used the results from our second trial to conclude

that less was better, in this case less vinegar and more baking soda. Our results show that we

successfully meet the weight requirements.

Conclusion; Our small scale airbag was similar to an actual air bag by being ‘powered’ by a

chemical reaction, they were different because our experiment was not as efficient at blowing up.

The limitations of our data were that we were working on limited amount of time and also our

calculations could be misleading at times. Our hypothesis was correct, in order to inflate the

baggy as much as possible we needed to use more baking soda instead of more vinegar. We
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came to this conclusion because the baking soda weighed less and we needed to meet weight

requirements. Our calculations supported this because in trial two when we used more vinegar

than baking soda our baggy didn't blow up nearly as much as when we used more baking soda in

trial three. In trial two a specific error that occured is that we unintentionally mixed our materials

before completely closing our baggy, causing the bag to not inflate to its full potential. Some

physical limitations were that we did not have a ten mL graduated cylinder, we had to use a

twenty mL graduated cylinder, this prevented us from getting exact measurements. The next time

we do this experiment I would make sure to get exact materials instead of improvising.

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