Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Due: 11/16/2011
Monday-Wednesday Lab
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Summary- This experiment had us use the majority of the skills we have developed so far
to identify an unknown salt that was assigned to us in lab. We had to do several qualitative
tests to identify the cation and anion in each of our salts. After the ions were identified in
each of the compounds, we had to perform a quantitative test to prove that our salt would
react as predicted based on its formula. When all the tests were finished, I came to the
Procedure- The first part of my experiment consisted of all qualitative tests. The first
experiment I did when I received my salt was a flame test. When I did my flame test, the
compound I was given burned a light violet color. This was a tell tale sign of the cation in my
salt. Next, I did a solubility test to see if my compound was soluble in water. After I tested
the compound’s solubility rate, I checked with the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics1
to see what cations burn violet during a flame test. The CRC Handbook gave me a good idea
of what element my cation was. It was one of three different elements: potassium, rubidium,
or cesium. The next thing test I did was to check and see if my compound was a hydrate. For
this experiment, I added some of my compound to a large test tube and heated it over the
Bunsen burner to see if any water would condense on the side of the test tube. When I heated
my compound with the Bunsen burner, nothing happened, which proved my compound was
not a hydrate. The next thing I did was mix some of my unknown in a beaker filled with
distilled water and added the solution to 6 test tubes. After I had added the solution to the 6
different test tubes, I gathered some solutions to mix with my unknown solution to see if a
precipitate would form. Fortunately, silver nitrate (AgNO 3) was the first and only solution I
mixed with my unknown, and when I mixed these two solutions together, a bright yellow
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Foot note to be replaced.
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precipitate formed. This finding was a very important one in the identification process of my
compound, for earlier in the semester we did an experiment where we had to identify an
unknown halide in a salt by mixing it with AgNO 3. The unknown halide in my previous
experiment turned out to be Bromine, which formed a yellow precipitate when mixed with
silver nitrate. Based on the information from the previous lab I decided my anion could be
either bromine or iodine. The next thing I did in my experiment was identify which anion
bromide, and sodium iodide into three separate test tubes, then I added about 1 mL of a
solution containing elemental chlorine and 1mL of mineral oil. When I added the chlorine
and mineral oil to the test tubes containing the sodium bromide and sodium iodide, the test
tube containing the sodium bromide turned a yellowish red color, and the solution containing
the sodium iodide turned a brownish color. I then added the chlorine water to my unknown
solution, which turned dark brown too. I then took all the test tubes and mixed the solutions
with the vortex stirrer to ensure the reaction had gone to completion. After I stirred with the
vortex stirrer, I let the tubes sit for a couple minutes. Several minutes later the solutions
separated from the oil leaving two test tubes with burgundy red solutions on top of the oil
and one with a yellow solution on top. The sodium iodide and my unknown solution
produced a burgundy red solution when mixed with the chlorine water, which led me to the
conclusion that my anion was iodine. The next thing I did in my experiment was identify my
cation by mixing my unknown solution with a solution of Na 3Co(NO2)6, which was supposed
to produce a solid if potassium was my cation. When I mixed my unknown solution with the
Na3Co(NO2)6, the yellow precipitate K3Co(NO2)6 formed, which proved the cation in my
solution was potassium. Based on all my tests I came to the final conclusion that my
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compound was potassium iodide and proceeded on with the quantitative part of the
experiment. The first thing I did was calculate the amount KI and AgNO 3 I would need to
carry out my reaction. I found that I would need about 0.217g of AgNO 3 and 0.212g of my
unknown (KI) to perform this small-scale precipitation reaction. I then measured out about
0.212g of KI and 0.300g of AgNO3, which was more than I calculated because I wanted to
ensure I had enough to complete the reaction. After I had mixed each of the solids in test
tubes with distilled water, I added the solution containing AgNO3 to the solution of KI 1 mL
at a time. When the reaction was completely finished and no precipitate would form with the
addition of more AgNO3, I centrifuged my solid for 5 minutes and decanted the supernatent
liquid when it was done. I then rinsed the solid and repeated the above process twice, and
when the rinsing process was completed I placed my solid in the oven to dry for 2 days.
When I came back, I recoded the mass of my solid AgI to be 0.314g. I then did calculations
Observations-
Qualitative tests:
3. Placed some on my unknown in a test tube and heated it with a Bunsen burner see if it was
a hydrate.
a. When the unknown was heated, there was no condensation that formed on the
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4. Placed AgNO3 in a test tube and added my unknown in solution form to see what would
happen.
a. When these two solutions were mixed, a bright yellow precipitate formed.
5. Added NaI, NaBr, and my unknown to three different test tubes and mixed them all with
chlorine water and mineral oil on the vortex stirrer. When the solutions separated, there
yellow precipitate formed, which was K 3Co(NO2)6 and proved my cation was
potassium.
Quantitative test:
a. 0.215g KI
a. 0.300g AgNO3.
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11. Centrifuged and rinsed the solid 2 times.
12. Placed the solid AgI in the oven to dry for 2 days.
13. Removed the solid from the oven and recorded the mass.
Calculations-
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Conclusion- To figure out what unknown 17 was I did several qualitative tests to get and
idea of what the cation and anion were in my salt compound. After observing the bright
violet flame during my flame test, I knew my cation had to be K +, Rb+, or Cs+. This led me to
do the Na3Co(NO2)6 test to see if a precipitate would form, which would be K 3Co(NO2)6 and
would identify my cation as K+. Next I identified my anion by mixing my unknown solution
with AgNO3, which formed a bright yellow precipitate. I knew it had to be either I - or Br -, so
I did the chlorine water test with NaI, NaBr, and my unknown to see which ones would look
the same. The NaI and my unknown solution looked identical, which led me to conclude that
my unknown anion was I-. Unknown 17 ended up being KI (potassium iodide). After I
conclusions. When the precipitation reaction was done, I did all the calculations to find out I
had a 3.29% error, which I believed was in part because I did not rinse the solid good enough
leaving trace amounts of the supernatent AgNO3 in test tube. This allowed the AgNO3 to add
to the weight of my solid during the drying process. Next time I do a precipitation reaction I
will be sure to rinse the solid more thoroughly to ensure all the supernatant fluid is removed