The current experiment is to determine the percentage composition of copper and chloride in a

sample of hydrated copper chloride.

For the hydrated copper chloride sample we have the following data for trial 1:

Mass of beaker (Mb) = 30.7 g

Mass of hydrated sample and beaker (Ms+b) = 33.3 g

The mass of hydrated sample (Ms) = Mass of hydrated sample and beaker – mass of beaker

Ms= (Ms+b)-(Mb) = 33.3-30.7 = 2.6 g

Mass of anhydrous sample and beaker: This value is blank in the question, but it needs to be given
or known. The hydrated sample and the beaker must be heated until all the water evaporates and the
blue copper chloride powder turns brown. When this happens, the beaker and the brown copper
chloride powder is weighed and that will give us the mass of the anhydrous sample and beaker.

Since this mass is not given in the question, I will assume it as ‘X’.

Mass of anhydrous sample (Mas) = Mass of anhydrous sample and beaker – mass of beaker

Mas= X-30.7

Now once we have the anhydrous copper chloride, we again dissolve this in known amount of water
so that, we get hydrated copper chloride blue solution. Now we need to remove the copper from this
solution and we can do that by adding a zinc or aluminum wire into the solution. The zinc or
aluminum displaces the copper from the copper chloride and the solution turns colorless when all
the copper has been displaced from the chloride and replaced by the zinc or aluminum.

Now to get the mass of the copper alone, we heat this solution and evaporate the solution so that
only the copper remains. We know that all the solution has evaporated when the mass of the
evaporating dish does not vary after repeated heating.

We see that after the 3rd heating, the mass of the dish is almost the same after the 2nd heating. This
indicates that all the solution has evaporated and we only have copper left behind.

Mass of evaporating dish = 38.3 g

Mass of evaporating dish+Cu = 38.4 g (I will take the second reading since if we take the 3rd
reading, the mass of copper in the dish is zero as the mass is similar to the mass of the evaporating
dish. Increase the number of significant digits in order to use the 3rd reading. For example, if we
added 1 more significant digit while taking the weight of the evaporating dish and copper, say
38.32g, then the mass of copper would be 38.32-38.3 = 0.02 g. But in the question, we only have 3
significant digits for both masses so we cannot take the 3rd reading)

Mass of copper = (Mass of evaporating dish + Cu) – (Mass of evaporating dish)

Mass of copper = 38.4-38.3 = 0.1 g

Percentage copper in copper chloride (%) = mass of copper/mass of hydrous copper chloride)
*100%
= (0.1/2.6)*100% = 3.8461 %

Percent chlorine in copper chloride: Since hydrated copper chloride contains copper, water and
chlorine, we know the % of copper and we can calculate the % of water.

% water =( mass of water/mass of hydrous copper chloride )*100%

Mass of water = Mass of hydrated sample – mass of anhydrous sample

Mass of water = (X-30.7)- 2.6

% chlorine = 100 - % copper - % water.