3/1/17

Chemical Principles and Processes: Putting theory into practice

Properties of Gases
• In the lab this week you will use:
– Avogadro’s Law
– The Ideal Gas equation
– Dalton’s Law

Dr Deborah Crittenden
deborah.crittenden@canterbury.ac.nz

Aim Method
• To determine the amount* of active ingredient**
in commercial antacid samples • React carbonate with acid (assuming solid
sample dissolves before reacting):
* number of moles → mass
CO32-(aq) + 2H+(aq) → CO2(g) + H2O(g,l)
** sodium or calcium carbonate

• Capture evolved gas (mixture of CO2 and

water vapour)

Method

• V (evolved gas) = n (evolved gas) if P, T

constant, by Avogadro’s Law
• Pressure inside closed end of system kept
constant by equalizing water levels (very
important!)
• Temperature does not vary significantly over
course of reaction

Start End

1
 3/1/17

Method Method
• Problem: CO2 is not the only gas produced
– Can’t use Ideal Gas Law directly to calculate number • Can now use Ideal Gas Law to calculate number
of moles of CO2 of moles of CO2 evolved:

• Solution: use Dalton’s Law to determine the

partial pressure of CO2, i.e. the pressure it would PCO2 V = nCO2 RT
have created if it was the only gas evolved into
the same volume nCO2 = PCO2 V/RT
– Ptotal = Patm = PCO2 + PH2O
– PCO2 = Patm - PH2O
– Look up partial pressure of water vapour at current
lab temperature in Appendix

Method Writing a timeline

• Finally, number of moles of evolved CO2 =
number of moles of CO32- present in sample,
according to reaction stoichiometry:
CO32-(aq) + 2H+(aq) → CO2(g) + H2O(g,l)
• Then convert number of moles to mass, using
molar mass of active ingredient for your sample
• Easy method: while watching lab instructional
video, note key steps in experimental procedure.
• Hard method: read lab manual, and note key
steps in experimental procedure.
• In both cases, estimate how long each step will
take, according to complexity of instructions
given.

Writing a timeline

• https://youtu.be/yXIbqQDl73g