Composition and Formula of a Hydrate - Brandon Basto

Experiment 3, 9/4/19

Purpose:

To find the number of moles of water per mole of hydrate compound by finding the percentage
of water by mass. We expect that by weighing the hydrate before and after heating it, we can find
the mass of water. By finding the ratio of moles of water to moles of the unknown, the actual
ratio will be very similar to the theoretical ratio

Materials and Methods:

● Ring stand and iron ring

● Bunsen burner
● Crucible tongs
● 4 Porcelain crucibles and crucible covers
● Wire triangle
● Timer
● Scale
● Igniter
● BaCl2*2H20, 1-2 grams
● Unknown Hydrate

We set up the Bunsen burner and thoroughly cleaned out the crucibles to avoid any errors with
the mass of the hydrate. The crucibles were then measured before and after we added the
BaCl2*2H20 & unknown hydrate so that we could accurately calculate their mass. The crucibles
with the BaCl2*2H20 were placed on the wire triangle on top of the ring stand. Underneath was
the Bunsen burner, which was ignited so we could heat them one at a time, each for 6 minutes.
Once one finished heating, we let it cool for 3 minutes before weighing the mass again while
another crucible was put on for another 6 minutes. We repeated this process twice for each
crucible because we yielded the same result after the second heating. The unknown hydrate was
the same process of weighing, heating and cooling for the same amount of minutes.

Results:
 Table A, Known Hydrate Data
First run | Second run

26.00g 21.82g Mass clean empty crucible and lid

27.01g 23.10g Mass crucible, lid, and BaCl2 . 2H2O

1.010g 1.280g Mass BaCl2 . 2H2O (Mass crucible, lid and BaCl2 . 2H2O - Mass empty
crucible)

26.84g 22.85g Mass crucible, lid & anhydride after 1st heating

26.84g 22.85g Mass crucible, lid & anhydride after 2nd heating

0.8400g 1.030g Mass BaCl2 (1st heating - mass crucible)

0.1700g 0.2500g Mass water, H2O, driven off (Mass BaCl2 . 2H2O - Mass BaCl2)

16.83% 19.53% % Water by mass in hydrate, BaCl2 . 2H2O (Mass water, H2O, driven off
÷ Mass BaCl2 . 2H2O)

16.11% average % water by mass in hydrate, BaCl2 . 2H2O

17.38% % precision or % relative range of % water by mass in hydrate, BaCl2 . 2H2O [(.177-
14.9)/.1611] . 100%

8.780% theoretical % water by mass in hydrate, BaCl2 . 2H2O

[(Mass H20 x2 (18.016 ))/(Mass BaCl2) (244.26)] x 100

83.54% percent accuracy or relative error of % water by mass in hydrate, BaCl2 . 2H2O [(expt'l
ave. - theo.)/theo.] . 100%
 Table B Unknown
Hydrate Data

First run | Second run

22.28g 26.17g Mass clean empty crucible and lid

24.11g 27.62g Mass crucible, lid, and unknown

1.230g 1.450g Mass unknown(Mass crucible, lid and unknown - Mass empty crucible)

23.92g 27.40g Mass crucible, lid & anhydride after 1st heating

23.92g 27.40g Mass crucible, lid & anhydride after 2nd heating

1.040g 1.220g unknown anhydride only (1st heating - mass crucible)

0.1900g 0.2200g Mass water, H2O, driven off (Mass hydrate - Mass anhydride)

15.45% 15.17% % Water by mass in unknown hydrate(Mass water, H2O, driven off ÷ Mass
hydrate)

15.31% average % water by mass in unknown hydrate

1.800% precision or % relative range of % water by mass in unknown hydrate (see error
references) [(15.45-15.172)/15.31] . 100%

Formula of the unknown anhydride - Li2SO4

Run 1 Run 2
 .011mols 0.012mols Number of moles of water driven off from unknown hydrate

.0095mols .011mols Number of moles of anhydride after heating

1.11mols 1.01mols Ratio of moles water to moles anhydride

1.11mols average ratio of moles of water to moles anhydride

Formula of unknown hydrate - 1Li2SO4 * 1H20

Discussion:

The data we collected supported our hypothesis of being close to the theoretical ratio for
BaCl2*2H2O, but we couldn’t compare our formula of the unknown hydrate to the actual
formula because we weren’t given it. However, we were confident in the formula we evaluated
from the ratio of moles of water to moles of anhydride, which was 1:1 from calculations in Table
B. During our experiment, we made a few mistakes such as accidentally tilting over the crucibles
a couple times. This could be a huge error in our calculations even though we couldn’t visibly
see any spill from the crucible. We also could have heated up the crucibles before adding the
hydrates for the first time in order to expel any leftover water from cleaning them.

Conclusion:

We found that the ratio of moles of water to moles of unknown hydrate to be 1:1. We made a
few mistakes that could have altered our calculations, but if not, we successfully found the moles
of water and hydrate in both trials from their respective masses to find their formula ratios.