An experiment on Stearic acid monomolecular films

By
Lee Brandt
October 19, 2015
Gus White
Max

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Objective:
The objective of this experiment is to understand the size of a molecule in
both length and height. This experiment studies this topic using a stearic
acid monolayer on the aqueous surface of water.
Procedure:
First gather the following materials:
1 20cm watch glass
1 1mL serological pipet
1 buret tip
disposable Pasteur pipets
dish soap
dilute HCl
Distilled water
1 glass rod
3 rubber stoppers of equal size
talc
hexane solution
hexane with Stearic acid solution
Create a homemade 1 mL buret by inserting a 1 ml serological pipet
into a buret tip. A tight seal can be created using parifilm wrapped around
the tip of the pipet.
Clean a 20cm watch glass with soap and tap water. Put on gloves to
minimize oil transfer to the watch glass surface. Using dilute HCl, rinse
the watch glass and then rinse three times with distilled water. Clean the
glass rod in the same method.
Place the watch glass on stoppers and level as best as possible. Using
distilled water, fill the watch glass till just above the rim of the glass and
then dust the surface with talk. Using a gentle breath, blow the surface of
the water and note the effect. Then scrape talk off the surface using the
glass rod.
Clean the inside of the homemade 1 mL buret with pure hexane solution
using a pasteure pipet. Then fill the clean and dry 1 mL buret with hexane
solution of stearic acid. Use a NEW and Pasteur pipet to withdraw the
solution and insert using ______________________ and record the
concentration of the Stearic acid solution
After filling the buret with solution, open the buret to force out the air
from the tip. If the solution falls below .50 mL, add more solution. Clamp
the buret using a stand and buret holder just above the surface of the
watch glass as close to the center as possible.

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Dropping one drop at a time, begin adding the solution, leaving enough
time for the hexane to evaporate. Watch the water for the first sign of a
visible layer of Stearic acid scum forming and immediately stop adding
solution; a SA monolayer has formed. Record the volume of the solution in
the buret used.
Now dust the surface of the water and record the effect of gentle blowing
of the surface. Does the observed motion change? Any other changes?
Repeat this experiment again cleaning everything again.
Data and Calculations:
Molarity of SA in Hexane = .000717M
Volume of SA in Hexane solution used:
Trial 1 = .55mL
Trial 2 = .35mL
Watch glass Diameter = 20cm

Area of film = 314.16cm2

Weight of SA in film
(.55ml + .35mL)/2=.45mL
.45mL

1L
1000ml

=.00045L

.000717M = 1Mol
.00045L =.000000322=3.22 x 10-7 Mol SA 2
.000000322Mol 284.48g
1 Mol
=.0000918g=9.18 x 10-5 g SA in solution film 1
Cross sectional area of a molecule
3.22 x 10-7 Mol SA x 6.022 x 1023
1 Mol

= 1.94 x 1017 atoms

Volume of SA molecule
9.18 x 10-5g cm3
.9408g
Atoms of SA
.0000976cm3

=.0000976cm3 4

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1.94 x 1017 = 5.03 x 10-22cm3
= 7.95 x 10-8cm2=D
= 3.98 x 10-8=r
A=(3.98x10-8)2 = 4.98 x 10-15 cm2 3
V=h r2
h (3.98x10-8)2
h= 1.0128 x 10-7cm 5
1.0128 x 10-9 m 1 A
1 x 10-10 = 10.13 A length of SA
10.13/23.7 x 100 = 58.99

4.98 x 10-15cm2
4.98 x 10-17m2 1 A
1 x 10-20 = 4980 A2 height of SA
4980/20.7 x 100 = 23,957.97
SA length
10.13 A

Accepted
SA Length
24.7 A

Percent
deviation
58.99

SA Height
4980 A2

Accepted
SA Height
20.7 A2

Percent
Deviation
23,957.97

Conclusions:
1. If material escapes over the edge of the watch glass during the
titration, calculations would be off, the surface area of which the
monolayer would cover would increase causing more material to be
needed however the amount of additional surface area would not be
measurable, causing the experimental values of cross-sectional area to
be off by a major degree. The size of the molecule would decrease
because it would look like there are more molecules needed to cover
the entire surface area of the watch glass.
2. Two inherent assumptions in this experiment accepted in this
experiment was that the surface of the water in the watch glass was
free from impurities after scraping off the talc. If residual talc still
persisted on the surface of the water, the Stearic acid monolayer could
have been disrupted and thus the amount necessary to cover 1
monolayer would be affected, an experimental error that could be
disastrous to the experiment. This is entirely valid, however since the
experiment had no other way of cleaning the surface of the watch

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glass it is safe to assume that all values would have this error and thus
results would be similar across the board.
Another assumption to this experiment is the aligning of the SA
molecules. If the molecules fail to line up with their polar ends and non
polar tails in a monolayer, they could affect the amount of SA used. It
is unlikely that this happened incorrectly, however after viewing a
computer simulation of this molecule lining up, one could assume that
the over time, the monolayer might take more SA after aligning.
Another experimental error is the hexane solution. Hexane evaporates
but can leave a residual residue, leaving impurities on the surface of
the watch glass and disrupting the monolayer and thus the
calculations, however with time, the hexane is likely to evaporate
entirely leaving a pure monolayer.
While this is only one source of error, two others have already been
discussed. The poor laboratory technique of cleaning can also be
considered an experimental error. The experiment relies on the
assumption that the entire surface of the watch glass is free from
impurities that would affect the monolayer. Any residual chemical or
soap could cause the layer to be immediately disrupted. Another
difficulty is the accepted error in measuring the amount of SA in the
monolayer. One drop of SA in hexane solution could be as much as .1
ml causing the variance to be massive. The end point of the monolayer
could be somewhere in the middle of the drop and the whole drop may
not be needed creating extra SA in the monolayer and thus excess SA
included in the calculation.