Introduction:
As a class, we were each given our own individual compounds. The goal to figure out, through a series of tests, what the compound was. The reason we did this was to understand that the properties and behaviors of a compound are all we need to correctly identify them, and not just knowing the name of them. The experiments that I used were, the solubility test, the conductivity test, and the flame test. The solubility test tests how a substance is able to dissolve in a different substance, in our case water. The conductivity test shows the degree to which the solution conducts electricity. The flame test uses the heat of the flame to excite the electrons into a higher energy level and creates kinetic energy. This releases energy waves that produce light, specific to the metal being burned.
Method:
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I put distilled water into a section of my well plate and added a small scoop of my compound into it. Another reason that I decided to do it first was that once dissolved, I put the conductivity meter into the well plate which was the most time efficient. Once I conclusively figured out my compound was ionic I moved on to the flame test. The flame test only works on ionic compounds, so doing it after knowing that the test would return helpful evidence made the most sense. After all three of these tests, there was enough evidence to make a conclusive answer to the original question of, what compound is