SOLUBILITY EQUILIBRIUM OF CALCIUM HYDROXIDE

GISELLE REYES1 AND REGINA MAE BULAONG2

1
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS, COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
2
DEPARTMENT OF MINING, METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING,
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES, DILIMAN QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES
DATE PERFORMED: OCTOBER 7, 2016
INSTRUCTOR: LIZETTE MELLA

ABSTRACT
The experiment aims to determine the solubility product constant of the ionic
salt Calcium Hydroxide. The prepared media containing the ionic salt were tested
by introducing different factors that affects the solubility such as temperature,
common-ion effect, diverse-ion effect and the solvent polarity. The data was
computed to yield varying concentrations of OH - from which the concentration of
Ca2+ was obtained, which is also the solubility of the compound. Further calculations
showed that the increase in ionic strength increases the solubility. Also, the effect of
common-ion and diverse-ion introduced to the solution was observed. The
experiment yielded an experimental value of 3.15 x10 -5 Ksp which deviates greatly
from the literature value. The experiment can be improved by accuracy in the
concentrations of saturated solutions and titration techniques.

INTRODUCTION
Slightly soluble salts, when placed in
water,
undergo
an
equilibrium
reaction. The following reaction is the
same as the equilibrium reaction
involved in this dissolution where AxBy
is a hypothetical solid:
AxBy(s) xAy+(aq) + yBx+(aq) (1)
From this type of reaction the
equilibrium constant Keq can be
referred to as the solubility product
constant. A substance's solubility
product
constant,
Ksp,
is
the
mathematical product of its dissolved
ion concentrations raised to the power

of their stoichiometric coefficients.

Solubility products are relevant when a
sparingly soluble ionic compound
releases ions into solution. To calculate
for the solubility product constant of a
reaction, this equation is used:
Ksp = [Ay+]x[Bx+]y
(2)
In this experiment, te equilibrium
product constant of Ca(OH)2, Ksp, was
obtained
using
titration.
The
equilibrium reaction was expressed as:
Ca(OH)2(s) Ca2+(aq) + OH-(aq)
(3)
Ksp = [Ca2+][ OH-]2

(4)

Ksp is also related to the molar

solubility of the springly soluble salt.
Molar solubility is the number of moles
of the solute that produce a liter of a
saturated
solution.
A
saturated
solution has the following molar
solubility:
[Ay+} = xs ; [By+} = ys
(5)
The solubility of salts in an aqueous
solution is greatly affected by the
following
factors:
temperature,
presence of common ions, presence of
diverse ions and the change in solvent
polarity. The effect of the presence of
common ion is an application of Le
Chateliers principle which states that
when a common ion is added to a
solution of dissociated solids, the
tendency would be towards the
precipitation of the dissolved solids.
The diverse-ion on the other hand
deals with interionic interactions of the
ions present in the solution. [1] This is
governed by the ionic strength:
= 1/2icizi2
(6)
where ci is the molarity of ion i, zi, is its
charge, and the summation is over all
ions present in the system.
Dissolution often occurs when the
solute-solvent interactions are similar
to the solvent-solvent interactions,
signified by the term like dissolves
like. Hence, polar solutes dissolve in
polar solvents, whereas nonpolar
solutes dissolve in nonpolar solvents.
There is no one measure of solvent
polarity and so classification of
solvents based on polarity can be
carried
out
using
different
scales. Solubility
changes
with
temperature. The vant Hoff equation:
lnK = -H/RT + S/R
(7)

relates the equilibrium constant with

the change in temperature, given the
enthalpy and entropy changes.
In this experiment, the solubility
product constant of Ca(OH)2 in various
media is determined by titrating the
saturated solution with (OH-). The
purpose of this experiment is to
investigate the relation between molar
solubility and Ksp, and to analyze the
effect of the aforementioned factors to
the solubility of Ca(OH)2.

METHODOLOGY
In order to determine the molar
solubility of Ca(OH)2, different media
were prepared in 250-mL beakers.
Medium A, B and C were all 50 mL
water
in
different
temperature.
Medium D was prepared using 50 mL
0.10 M CaCl2 in room temperature,
medium E with 50 mL 0.50 M Kcl in
room temperature and medium F with
45 mL distilled water and 5 mL 95%
ethanol in room temperature. Ca(OH)2
was added vigorously until the
solution became saturated. The media
were stirred for 5 minutes and were
left for 10 minutes. For each medium,
the suspension was filtered. For media
B & C, it was made sure that the
receiving flasks are of the same
temperature as the suspensions. 25mL aliquot were drawn from each of
the medium and were transferred to a
125-ml Erlenmeyer flask. Three drops
of 1% phenolphthalein was added to
each. These were then titrated with
0.10 M HCl until the color of
phenolphthalein vanished to colorless.
Two trials of titration were performed
for each medium.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this experiment the solubility of the

ionic salt Ca(OH)2 was measured. The
equilibrium reaction is expressed in
(3). The preparation of all the medium
were necessary to investigate the
effect of different factors mentioned to
the molar solubility and the solubility
product constant of the ionic salt.
During the preparation, when the
supernate of the suspension were
obtained, the filtration was necessary
since only the amount of dissolved
solids were quantified to obtain the
Ksp. Before the titration, an indicator
which is phenolphthalein was added to
the supernate to determine the
equivalence
point.
The
titration
process was performed to determine
the molar solubility of Ca2+ which was
obtained from the concentration of
OH-.
Table 1 Experimental Data
Media
A
B
C
D
E
F

2+

[OH ],
M
0.039
0.028

[Ca ],
M
0.0199
0.014

Ksp

0.043
6
0.048
0.72
0.034

0.0218

3.15x10-5
1.098x1
0-5
4.14x10-5

0.124
0.36
0.0172

5.53x10-5
0.187
1.99x10-5

By obtaining the concentration of the

hydroxide ions present in the solution,
the concentration of calcium ions
(Ca2+) can be computed also by using
the stoichiometric coefficients (2). The
molar solubility can also be obtained
and it is equal to the concentration of
Ca2+ because for every Ca(OH)2 that
dissolves, Ca2+ forms with the same
amount because they have a 1:1 mole
ratio. And by using the equilibrium
concentration of OH- and Ca2+ in the
solution, the Ksp for the calcium
hydroxide solid can be obtained by
using . The results yielded by the

researchers are listed in table 1 and

further computations are located in
the appendix.
Comparing the Ksp of medium A which
is in room temperature the literature
value of 5.02 x 10-6, the percent error
is more than 100. This may be caused
by some deviations of the experiment
procedure. Another cause may be the
use of different volume of aliquot.

Graph of Van't Hoff Equation

f(x) = 1613.69x - 15.87

R = 0.56

Graph 1 1/T vs lnK

The graph representation of Vant Hoff

equation shows the relation of 1/T and
lnK. From this, the equation to
determine
experimental
Ksp
for
different temperatures was deduced
wherein, y is the lnK, x is 1/T, slope is
the enthalpy change divided by the
ideal gas constant and the intercept is
the entropy change divided by the gas
constant. Using the equation the
enthalpy change obtained is -13.42 kJ
and the entropy change is 131.94 J.
From these data, it is concluded that
the reaction is exothermic.
Table 2 Ionic Strength of Solvent
Mediu
m
A
B
C

[OH-]
,M
0.03
9
0.02
8
0.04
36

[Ca2+
], M
0.01
99
0.01
4
0.02
18

Solubili
ty
0.0199
0.014
0.0218

0.0
59
0.0
42
0.0
65

D
E
F

0.04
8
0.72
0.03
4

0.12
4
0.36
0.01
72

0.124
0.36
0.0172

Graph 2 Solubility
Strenth of Solvent

vs.

0.5
2
0.7
0.9

ionic

Solubility vs Ionic Strength

When the solubility is plotted against

the ionic strength of the solution
(excluding Ca2+ and deionized water
solution) an increasing trend is
observed which means that as the
number of diverse ions present in the
solution, the greater the solubility of
the solid species.
The errors of results may have come
from
the
preparation
of
the
suspension. There may be different
levels of saturation. Another cause
would be the titration procedure. The
determination of equivalence point
may not be accurate. This would have
affected the concentration values
obtained.
CONCLUSION
The Ksp values obtained from the
experiment
deviates
from
the
literature value by more than a 100
percent. This experiment can be
improved by reducing systematic
errors other than those that were

discussed
discussion.

in

the

results

and

The medium were the common-ion

effect was observed showed that the
solubility did increase which resulted
from adding a common ion to the
solution. On the other hand, the
medium with a diverse ion effect
increased
the
solubility,
thus
increasing Ksp.
As a conclusion, the experiment is a
failure quantitatively since it yielded a
large percentage error. Qualitatively
the experiment is a success since it
did show the effects of different
factors
to
the
solubility
and
determination of Ksp. However, the
data obtained can be corrected upon
careful
actions,
proper
use
of
apparatuses
and
accurate
measurement of reagents.

REFERENCES:
[1] Brown, Theodore E. Lemay, H.
Eugene, et. Al., 11th edition. Chemistry:
The Central Science. Pearson
Education Inc., 2009.
[2] Petrucci, Ralph H., William S.
Harwood, and Geoffrey F. Herring, 8th
edition. General Chemistry. PrenticeHall, 2002
[6]Solubility Product. (n.d.). Retrieved
from
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~franzen/public
_html/CH201/data/Solubility_Product_C
onstants.pdf
A. Sample Calculations
Trial 1

[OH-] = (10.5mL)(0.1 M)/25 mL =

0.042 M
[Ca2+] = [OH-]/1 = 0.021

y = 1613.7x 15.866
Ksp @ 298 K
1/lnK = 1613.7(1/298K) 15.866

VTIT = (10 mL + 7.5 mL)/2 = 9 mL

S = [OH-]/2 = [Ca2+]
Ksp = 4S3 = 4(0.021)3 = 3.7 x 10-5
= [(0.039)(-1)2 + (0.0199)(2)2] =
0.059
linear equation from Vant Hoff
equation

Ksp = -10.45
lnK = -H/RT + S/R
slope = -H/R
H = (-1613.7)(8.314) = -13.42 kJ
y-int. = S/R
S = (15.866)(8.314) = 131.94 J