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Lab Report - Enthalpy

The lab report investigates the enthalpy of magnesium combustion using Hess's law, aiming to determine reaction enthalpies without a calorimeter. The procedure involves measuring reactant masses, conducting reactions, and recording temperature changes, with findings indicating positive temperature changes and negative enthalpy values. The report concludes with reflections on potential errors and suggestions for future experiments involving different solids.

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7 views4 pages

Lab Report - Enthalpy

The lab report investigates the enthalpy of magnesium combustion using Hess's law, aiming to determine reaction enthalpies without a calorimeter. The procedure involves measuring reactant masses, conducting reactions, and recording temperature changes, with findings indicating positive temperature changes and negative enthalpy values. The report concludes with reflections on potential errors and suggestions for future experiments involving different solids.

Uploaded by

randombtskpop786
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lab Report

Part 1: Introduction

Title: Enthalpy

Purpose: Explore the enthalpy of the combustion of magnesium using Hess’s law

Question: How can you use Hess’s law to determine a reaction’s when you can’t do so using a
calorimeter

Hypothesis:

Part 2: Materials and Procedure

Materials:

 Two polystyrene coffee cups and a lid


 Ring stand
 Burette clamp
 Thermometer
 Analytical balance
 Weighing paper
 250-ml beaker
 100-ml graduated cylinder
 200 ml of 1 M hydrochloric acid
 Magnesium ribbon
 Magnesium oxide
 Steel wool

Procedure:

Step 1: Gather Materials

Step 2: Prepare the Magnesium


Using steel wool, polish a piece of magnesium ribbon to remove the oxide coating that
prevents burning

Step 3: Assemble a Coffee Cup Calorimeter

a) Place one coffee cup inside the other.


b) Use scissors to punch the center of the lid and cut a small hole in it. (This will be for the
thermometer.)

Step 4: Measure Masses of the Reactants

a) Put the calorimeter (lid off) on the balance and tare the balance.
b) Using a graduated cylinder, measure and pour 100 mL of 1 M HCl into the calorimeter.
c) The mass shown is the mass of the HCl. Record it in the data table to the nearest 0.01 g.
d) Remove the calorimeter from the balance. Put a piece of weighing paper on the balance
and tare the balance.
e) On the weighing paper, add approximately 0.2 g of magnesium ribbon. Record the mass
of the solid to the nearest 0.01 g in the data table. (For Reaction 2, weigh approximately
1.5 g of magnesium oxide instead.)
f) Compute the mass of the reaction by adding the masses of the two reactants. Record
the sum in the data table.

Step 6: Carry out the Reaction and Measure the Temperature Change

a) Carefully raise the lid on the calorimeter and add the magnesium ribbon (magnesium
oxide for Reaction 2) to the HCl solution. Quickly replace the lid and thermometer.
b) Unclamp the thermometer and swirl the reactants gently. Reclasp it in place.
c) As the reaction occurs, identify the temperature furthest from the initial temperature.
Record that temperature in the data table to the nearest 0.1°C.
d) Compute ∆T, the change in temperature, by subtracting the initial temperature from the
temperature you just found.

Steps 7-9: Rinse and dry the coffee cup calorimeter and repeat steps 4–6 for Reaction 2, using
magnesium oxide instead of magnesium.
Step 10: Perform Calculations to Complete the Data Table

Step 11: Dispose of all Materials According to the Directions of Your Teacher

Part 3: Data
Part 4: Analysis and Conclusion

Analysis:

We measured the mass of the reactants and the temperature change during the reaction. In
both Reactions 1 and 2, the temperature change was positive, meaning that the reactions gave
off heat. We also saw that the magnesium combustion had a negative enthalpy which one again
shows that it gave off heat

Conclusion:

The Purpose of this experiment was to explore the enthalpy of the combustion of magnesium
using Hess’s law. Our learning goals of this lab were to use mass and temperature data to do
computations involving heat, to demonstrate that different reactions have different
enthalpies, to compute a reaction’s enthalpy directly using mass measurements and a
calorimeter, to compute the enthalpy of a reaction that cannot be measured directly using a
simple calorimeter.

Some sources of error could have been that the coffee cup calorimeter may have absorbed
some heat. The plastic coffee cup lid may have allowed some heat to escape. Reading the
maximum temperature values from the thermometer could be challenging. Some future
experiment suggestions is we could have tested more solids some that absorbed heat since we
only saw solids that gave off heat.

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