Exp 3.

Determining the relative molecular mass of an unknown gas

Panghung Wen
Introduction
This experiment is going to determine the relative molecular mass of an unknown gas,

through the ideal gas equation, we can get the Mr of the unknown gas. The ideal gas

equation is shown in equation 1.

𝑃𝑉 = 𝑛𝑅𝑇 (1)

P represents the pressure, V represents the volume, n represents the mole of gas, and

R is the as constant with a value of 8.31 J mol-1K-1.

The n is known as a mole, so we can change it into W Mr-1, so we can change

equation 1 into equation 2.

𝑊
𝑃𝑉 = 𝑅𝑇 (2)
𝑀!

The equation 3 is the transposition of equation 2, which deduces Mr.

𝑊𝑅𝑇
𝑀! = (3)
𝑃𝑉

In this experiment, we’re going to use the CO2 to become our sample, we’ll get CO2
produced by the reaction of NaHCO3 and HCl, the reaction shown in equation 4.

𝑁𝑎𝐻𝐶𝑂" (𝑎𝑞) + 𝐻𝐶𝑙(𝑎𝑞) → 𝑁𝑎𝐶𝑙(𝑎𝑞) + 𝐻# 𝑂(𝑙) + 𝐶𝑂# (𝑔) (4)

Also, we’ll use the CO2 that is directly provided by the carbon dioxide cylinder to
examine the purity of CO2 produce by the reaction.

Experiment
Chemical

The sodium carbonate we use is purchased from Costco, and it’s manufactured by

Arm & Hammer. The HCl we use is manufactured by Choneye Pure Chemical, and

the pure CO2 we use is manufactured by Pi Change Enterprise Co., Ltd.

1
Apparatus

The syringe is prepared to contain CO2, a conical flask is a container of NaHCO3, and

also the place where the reaction happened, a separating funnel that contained the

HCl. The readability of an electronic balance is 0.001g, the balance is manufactured

by the Ohaus corporate with the item number of PA213.

Procedure

First of all, weigh the empty syringe, and record it, after that, put NaHCO3 into the

conical flask, HCl in the separating funnel, and start to produce the CO2, when you

see the bubbling in the conical flask, wait for a while, to let the air in rubber tubing

fume-off, and start to draw the CO2 by the syringe, and weigh and record the syringe

with CO2.

For the pure CO2, weigh the empty syringe, record it, aerated the syringe with pure

CO2, and weigh and record the syringe with pure CO2.

Repeat the procedure until getting a least 3 data for each. After finishing the

procedure, record the temperature and pressure, and check the volume of the CO2, by

drawing the water and putting the water into the graduated cylinder to get the volume.

Result and Discussion

The temperature is 25°C, with a pressure of 1004.951 hPa, table 1 shows the data we

get from the reaction by NaHCO2 and HCl, and table 2 shows the data of pure CO2,

through the ideal gas equation PV=nRT, we can get Mr through changing n to

mass/Mr.

Table 1. CO2 produced by NaHCO3 and HCl

weight of empty weight of syringe
NO. weight of CO2 Mr
syringe with CO2
1. 35.414 35.424 0.01 33.4

2. 35.412 35.422 0.01 33.4

2
 3. 35.414 35.423 0.009 32.9

average 0.01 33.2

The absolute uncertainty of the balance is 0.001 g, regarding the propagation of

uncertainty, the average mass of CO2 is 0.01±0.0018g. The calculation is shown in

the equations below.

0.01 + 0.01 + 0.009 0.001 # 0.001 # 0.001 #

𝐶𝑂# : < ? + @< ? +< ? +< ? %
3 0.01 0.01 0.009

= 0.01 ± 18.0% = 0.01 ± 0.0018𝑔

Furthermore, the standard deviation of CO2 is 0.0005, and the percentage relative

standard deviation is 5%, the calculations are shown below.

𝜎 0.0005
𝐶𝑂# : × 100% = × 100% = 5%
ΧD 0.01
To detect the accuracy of the experiment, the relative molecular mass of CO2 is

44g/mol, in this experiment, the average of CO2 is 33.2, so we get a percentage error

of 25%.
|33.2 − 44|
𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100% = 25%
44
From the percentage error of 25%, there is some causations that might affect the

accuracy, the first one is the air, when we draw the CO2, we have to pinch the rubber

tubing tightly, so we can get the CO2 produced by NaHCO3 and HCl, but due to the

velocity of the reaction, and we can’t pinch the rubber tubing very tightly, without any

void, so there must be some air in the syringe, from the data we can know that the Mr

is smaller than the reality, that makes sense because the Mr of the air is about

28.8g/mol, but CO2 has the Mr of 44g/mol. Another reason that might affect the

accuracy is the balance, during the experiment, we found that when we measure the

weight of the syringe, the standing weight has different than the lying weight, we

predict that when we measure the lying weight, there must have some parts touch the

3
balance, so that affects the weight of syringe.

Table 2. Pure CO2

weight of empty weight of syringe
NO. weight of CO2 Mr
syringe with CO2
1. 35.413 35.445 0.032 44.1

2. 35.412 35.450 0.038 47.0

3. 35.413 35.450 0.0037 46.5

average 0.036 46.1

the average mass of CO2 is 0.036±0.0018g. The calculation is shown in the equations

below.

0.032 + 0.038 + 0.037 0.001 # 0.001 # 0.001 #

𝐶𝑂# : < @
?+ < ? +< ? +< ? %
3 0.032 0.038 0.037

= 0.036 ± 5% = 0.036 ± 0.0018𝑔

Furthermore, the standard deviation of CO2 is 0.0026, and the percentage relative

standard deviation is 5%, the calculations are shown below.

𝜎 0.0026
𝐶𝑂# : × 100% = × 100% = 7.2%
D
Χ 0.036
To detect the accuracy of the experiment, the relative molecular mass of CO2 is

44g/mol, in this experiment, the average of CO2 is 46.1, so we get a percentage error

of 4.8%
|46.1 − 44|
𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100% = 4.8%
44
In this case, we got the percentage error of 4.8%, if we predict that the CO2 we get

from the cylinder is 100% pure, then we can say that the reason why there’s a error is

because of the balance, just like we mentioned before, the standing weight has

different than the lying weight, and lying weight has bigger error than the standing

one, also because the weight between syringe and CO2 has a huge different, so that

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might cause the error of weight of the CO2.

Conclusion
For the data we get from table 1, we can’t exactly get the pure CO2, due to a lot of

causation, we can’t pinch the rubber tubing tightly, so we draw some air into the

syringe, and also the inaccuracy of weighting, that cause the error of the experiment.

But the first data from table 2 has the nearest value to reality, we can also prove that

the ideal gas equation, and there might be because of the calculation or the inaccuracy

during the balancing, all of this reason might cause the error.

Reference

Bylikin S., Horner G., Murphy B., & Tarcy D. (2014). Chemistry course companion
(2014 ed.). Oxford University Press.