Experiment 1

The Ideal Gas Law and the Measurement of the Molar Volume of Carbon Dioxide Gas

EXPLANATION OF EXPERIMENT
Since the reaction of NaHCO3 and CH3COOH was used as the core concept of the experiment, the
moles of the reaction are well-integrated. Also considering that the balloon was well-secured over
the graduated cylinder, it ensures that only the carbon dioxide created from the reaction would be
inside the balloon. This is the setup envisioned for calculations that involve seeming “ideal” gases.

WORKSHEET
Volume
Mass Volume of 2.5 M Temperature Pressure
Trial generated
NaHCO3 (g) CH3COOH (mL) (°C) (atm)
(mL)
1 1.0400 25.0 227.0 26.0 1.0

2 0.7560 20.0 210.0 27.0 1.0

3 0.5205 15.0 144.0 26.0 1.0

1. Trial 1
𝑉 0.227 𝐿 𝐿
𝑛
= 0.0124 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑁𝑎𝐻𝐶𝑂3
= 18. 31 𝑚𝑜𝑙

Trial 2
𝑉 0.210 𝐿 𝐿
𝑛
= −3 = 23. 34 𝑚𝑜𝑙
8.999×10 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑁𝑎𝐻𝐶𝑂3

Trial 3
𝑉 0.144 𝑚𝐿 𝐿
𝑛
= −3 = 23. 24 𝑚𝑜𝑙
6.1957×10 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑁𝑎𝐻𝐶𝑂3

2. For an ideal gas at the given conditions,

𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑚
𝑉 𝑅𝑇 (0.0821 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝐾 )(299.15 𝐾) 𝐿
𝑛
= 𝑃
= 1.0 𝑎𝑡𝑚
= 24. 56 𝑚𝑜𝑙

Since the values are quite close to the idealized value, carbon dioxide can be approximated
as an ideal gas at the experimental conditions.