The lab started off by measuring critical materials for the lab: the mass of an an empty 100 mL beaker, mass of beaker and copper chloride together(52.30 g), and the mass of three iron nails(2.73 g). The goal of this experiment is to determine the number of moles of copper and iron that would be produced in the reaction of iron and copper(II) chloride, the ratio of moles of iron to moles of copper, and the percent yield of copper produced. 2.00 grams of copper(II) chloride was added in the beaker to mix with 15 mL of distilled water. Then, three dry nails are placed in the copper(II) chloride solution for approximately 25 minutes. The three nails have to be scraped clean by sandpaper to make the surface of the nail shiny; if the nails are not clean, then some unknown substances might accidentally mix into the reaction and cause variations of the result. This is important because the correct reaction would only appear if the right elements are mixed together, the unknown substances on the iron nails can cause a different reaction to happen that is not expected. …show more content…
After a while, a brownish color substance started to form on the three iron nails. We predicted that the brown substance on the nails is copper because the reaction of copper(II) chloride with iron is a single displacement reaction, so copper would be produced. 0.48 grams of iron was used in the reaction because 2.73 grams subtracted by 2.25 grams is 0.48 grams. The 0.48 grams of iron had to be used in the reaction with copper(II) chloride in order to produce copper, according to the reaction equation: CuCl2+FeFeCl2+Cu. 0.52 grams of copper was produced after pouring out the copper(II) chloride solution and the three iron