Chem 1412: Experiment #2

Lab Report Date: 10/21/2017

Lab Title: Chemical Equilibrium (Determination of Kc using UV Absorption)
Student Name:
Lab Partners:

Objectives: The objectives of this lab were to be able to determine the equilibrium constant for a
given reaction, demonstrate understanding of Le Chatelier's Principle, and to gain familiarity in using the
Spectrophotometer.

Pre-lab questions:
1: An equilibrium constant is the ratio of the concentration of products and the concentration of
reactants. If a constant is more than 1, this means that products are favored in the chemical reaction, and
if the constant is less than 1, this means that reactants are favored in chemical reactions.
Generic chemical reaction: aA + bB ⇌ cC + dD Generic equilibrium constant: Kc = [C]c[D]d/[A]a[B]b

2. Le Chatelier’s Principle says that when a system is disturbed, the equilibrium will shift to counter
the effect of that disturbance. So for example if a system was at equilibrium and additional reactants were
added, Le Chatelier's Principle says that the reaction would favor the forward direction, in order to use up
the reactants and produce products and reestablish equilibrium,

3: A spectrophotometer is an instrument used to measure the absorbance (amount of photons) that

pass through a solution. The principle behind the use of a spectrophotometer is beer's law. Beer’s law
says that absorbance is directly proportional to the concentration of a solution. This means that plotting
absorbance vs concentration on a graph should yield a linear function. This can be used determine the
concentration of an unknown solution once the %T has been measured

4. It is important to make sure that the cuvette is clean because smudges, dirt, oil, fingerprints, and
any other impurities can alter the absorbance readings when placed in Spectrophotometer.

Equipment and Materials required:

Spectrophotometer, 250 mL Beaker, 10 mL 0.0020 M KSCN, 25 mL 2.0 M HNO3, 65 mL DI
Water, Stirring Rod, cuvette, pipette, 10 mL 0.10 M Fe(NO3)3/HNO3

Safety Procedures:
Standard lab safety protocol and dress code should be followed while conducting this experiment,
the appropriate PPE (Goggles & Lab Apron) should be used to mitigate the risk of injury. A few of the
chemicals being used are corrosive and can cause moderate to severe irritation so care should be taken
while handling chemicals. Care should also be taken when handling liquids near Spectrophotometer, if
any liquid should spill on or in machine it could break the machine or affect the results reported. At the
conclusion of the experiment the solution created should disposed of in a designated waste container and
not poured down the drain.
Write NFPA ratings and what happens in the case of skin contact.
2M Nitric acid HNO3 is corrosive and will cause severe burns to eyes, skin, and respiratory tract,
it is also a strong oxidizer, this means it is capable of igniting combustibles.

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 Potassium thiocyanate KSCN is harmful if swallowed, inhaled, or allowed to
make contact with skin, if contact should occur the affected area should be washed
with water for at least 15 minutes to reduce/prevent irritation.

Iron(III) nitrate Fe(NO3)3 can cause irritation with bodily surfaces that in
comes in contact with, care should be taken not to inhale chemical, or let it come in
contact with eyes or skin to prevent serious irritation/injury.

Procedure: Follow the procedure from the lab manual. Write in your own words. Include reaction.
The spectrophotometer should be turned on and allowed to warm up for at least 20 minutes.
Then the wavelength should be set to 450 nm and the hatch should be closed while the 0 knob is turned
to zero. A cuvette filled with a reference liquid (2 M HNO3) should be placed in machine and
Transmittance set to 100 (use the same type of cuvette that will be used for remainder of experiment).
After removing the calibrating cuvette, the machine is now ready for use.
Appropriate PPE should be equipped then all materials required for experiment (listed above)
should be gathered. A solution should be created by adding 10 mL 0.0020M KSCN, 25 mL 2.0M HNO3,
and 65 mL DI water into a beaker. Then a pipette should be used to measure and add 1.0mL 0.10M
Fe(NO3)3 to the solution created in the beaker, once added, solution should be stirred thoroughly with a
stirring rod. Once solution is stirred, about 70% of solution should be poured into cuvette and placed
place into spectrophotometer. Once the %T is recorded, the cuvette contents should be poured back into
beaker, another 1.0ml 0.10M Fe(N3)3 added, stirred, poured in cuvette, placed in spectrophotometer and
repeated until 10 readings are obtained. Once experiment is complete, chemicals should be disposed of
in the appropriate designated waste container and not poured into sink. A graph should be made
plotting the appropriate values from data table, and then used to determine the Kc of the reaction (-slope).
Reaction: FeSCN+2 ⇌ Fe+3 + SCN-1

Data Table: Prepare a data table in EXCEL.

Solution # -> 1 2 3 4 5

%T 77.6 65.8 55.8 49.6 44.2

A 1.10x10^-1 1.82x10^-1 2.53x10^-1 3.05x10^-1 3.55x10^-1

[Fe+3] 9.90x10^-4 1.96x10^-3 2.91x10^-3 3.85x10^-3 4.76x10^-3

[SCN-] 1.98x10^-4 1.96x10^-4 1.94x10^-4 1.92x10^-4 1.90x10^-4

[Fe+3]+[SCN-] 1.19x10^-3 2.16x10^-3 3.10x10^-3 4.04x10^-3 4.95x10^-3

[Fe+3][SCN-] 1.96x10^-7 3.84x10^-7 5.65x10^-7 7.39x10^-7 9.04x10^-7

A([Fe+3]+[SCN-]) 1.31x10^-4 3.93x10^-4 7.84x10^-4 1.23x10^-3 1.76x10^-3

(A([Fe+3]+ 6.68x10^2 1.02x10^3 1.39x10^3 1.66x10^3 1.95x10^3

[SCN-]))/([Fe+3]
[SCN-])

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 A/([Fe+3][SCN-]) 5.61x10^5 4.74x10^5 4.48x10^5 4.13x10^5 3.93x10^5

Solution # -> 6 7 8 9 10

%T 40.2 37.4 35.8 33.8 32.4

A 3.96x10^-1 4.27x10^-1 4.46x10^-1 4.71x10^-1 4.89x10^-1

[Fe+3] 5.66x10^-3 6.54x10^-3 7.41x10^-3 8.26x10^-3 9.09x10^-3

[SCN-] 1.89x10^-4 1.87x10^-4 1.85x10^-4 1.83x10^-4 1.82x10^-4

[Fe+3]+[SCN-] 5.85x10^-3 6.73x10^-3 7.60x10^-3 8.94x10^-3 1.01x10^-2

[Fe+3][SCN-] 1.07x10^-6 1.20x10^-6 1.37x10^-6 1.511x10^-6 1.65x10^-6

A([Fe+3]+[SCN-]) 2.31x10^-3 2.87x10^-3 3.39x10^-3 4.21x10^-3 4.94x10^-3

(A([Fe+3]+ 2.16x10^3 2.39x10^3 2.47x10^3 2.79x10^3 3.00x10^3

[SCN-]))/([Fe+3]
[SCN-])

A/([Fe+3][SCN-]) 3.7x10^5 3.56x10^5 3.26x10^5 3.12x10^5 2.96x10^5

New Molarity [Fe+3] = ((Molarity Fe(NO3)3)(Vol. Of Fe+3))/(Total vol. RXN solution)

New Molarity [SCN-] = ((Molarity SCN-)(Vol. Of SCN-))/(Total vol. RXN solution)

Graphs: Graphical Analysis

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 The equilibrium constant Kc = -slope → Kc = 105.92

Observations:
During the experiment, a trend was noticed relating to the absorbance/transmittance readings
from the spectrophotometer, the absorbance and transmittance were inversely proportional to each other.
Also the more Fe(NO3)3 that was added, the darker colored the solution became, and the lower the
Transmittance % value reported by the machine. This makes sense since a darker solution is more
opaque, it would be harder for light to pass through, meaning the Transmittance % would be lowered and
the Absorption would increase..

Calculations:
Absorbance= (2-Log T) → (2-Log(77.6)) → 1.10x10^-1
[Fe+3] = ((Molarity Fe(NO3)3)(Vol. Of Fe+3))/(Total vol. RXN solution) → (0.10 M)(1 mL)/(101 mL)→
9.90x10^-4
[SCN-] = ((Molarity SCN-)(Vol. Of SCN-))/(Total vol. RXN solution) → ((0.0020 M)(10 mL))/(101 mL)
→ 1.98x10^-4
([Fe+3]i + [SCN-]i) = 9.90x10^-4 + 1.98x10^-4 → 1.19x10^-3 M
([Fe+3]i x [SCN-]i) =(9.90x10^-4)(1.98x10^-4)→ 1.96x10^-7
A([Fe+3]i + [SCN-]i) = (1.10x10^-1)(9.90x10^-4 + 1.98x10^-4)→ 1.31x10^-4
X=(A([Fe+3]i + [SCN-]i))/([Fe+3]i x [SCN-]i) =
((1.10x10^-1)(9.90x10^-4 + 1.98x10^-4))/((9.90x10^-4)(1.98x10^-4)) → 6.68x10^2
Y= A/([Fe+3]i x [SCN-]i)= (1.10x10^-1)/((9.90x10^-4)(1.98x10^-4)) → 5.61x10^5
Line 9(Y)=-K(line8)+b = Y=mx+b, the slope m is equal to -K, the equilibrium constant.
K = -m → -(-105.92) → 105.92

Data Analysis:
As the concentration of [Fe+3] increased and concentration of [SCN-] decreased, the absorbance

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 of the solution increased. For example, comparing solution 1 to 5, The concentration of [Fe+3] increased
from 9.90x10^-4 M to 4.76x10^-3 M and [SCN-] decreased from 1.98x10^-4 M to 1.90x10^-4 M, while the
absorbance increased from 1.10x10^-1 to 3.55x10^-1.
Le Chatelier’s principle says that when a system is disturbed, the equilibrium will shift to counter
the effect of that disturbance, so when the 0.10M Fe(N3)3 added to the solution, it associated with the
products (Fe+3) and the equilibrium shifts left, in order to counter the disturbance. The equilibrium
constant (Kc) for the reaction was 105.92, meaning that the reaction favored the production of products.

Errors: Write down errors associated with the experiment.

A potential source of error for this experiment could arise from the calibration of the
spectrophotometer, a incorrectly calibrated machine would not give the desired results. Another potential
source of error could be not properly handling cuvette, handling cuvette incorrectly by touching lower
portion could alter absorbance readings, which in turn would affect later calculations in experiment. Post
lab calculations and lack of understanding of principles associated with experiment could also negatively
affect the accuracy of the final results for constant value of the reaction.

Conclusions: Write with respect to objectives.

This lab was successful in meeting its multiple objectives, through the lab the equilibrium constant
was able to be determined, Le Chatelier's Principle was observed and applied, and practice using the
Spectrophotometer was also achieved. Trends associated with the experiment made logical sense, and
the Kc value obtained seems accurate due to the composition of the reaction.

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