Chemical Reaction Lab Report

Identifying reaction types and calculating percent yield after multiple chemical reactions of copper metal

*Ashlyn Langner and Katherine Rumfield

Chemistry 111 Section 524

Introduction

A topic of interest in science is the evaluation of the law of conservation of matter through different types of chemical reactions and determining the percent yield resulting from these reactions. This law states that after a chemical reaction, matter should neither be created nor destroyed. This experiment allows for this law to be tested and for the determination of different errors that may occur during chemical reactions similar to this one. The magnitude of these errors can be found through the percent yield calculated by using the original mass of

This is because the copper in the reactants is bonded to nitrate and the sodium is bonded to the hydroxide, then in the products the copper is bonded to the hydroxide and the sodium is bonded to the nitrate. This can also be classified as a precipitation reaction because there was a solid formed from two aqueous solutions. During this step in the cycle, adding NaOH to the copper nitrate caused the formation of small, flaky pieces which quickly disappeared. These pieces can be assumed to be the copper hydroxide in the products as it is the only solid in solution. After adding 100 drops of NaOH to the solution the mixture changed color from a transparent blue to a creamy, thick blue. At 120 drops of NaOH the mixture turned very bright blue and the drop of the solution on the red litmus paper turned the paper blue as well, indicating the reaction was

After adding 0.300 g of zinc to the copper sulfate, the zinc immediately fell to the bottom of the beaker and turned black. The mixture became cloudy, bubbly, and dark as a small amount of smoke from the reaction became evident. The solution continued to become darker and never became colorless, as expected in the directions. Once stirring stopped and solution was able to settle, there was a clear separation between the solid and the liquid left in this solution. Anther identification of the single-replacement reaction, as copper in the solid form was