Anne Hindenberg Chemistry

Internal Assessment




DETERMINTATION OF THE ENTHALPY CHANGE FOR THE
DISCPLACEMENT REACTION BETWEEN ZINC AND COPPER SULFATE

DCP AND CE

Aim: To determine the enthalpy change for the single displacement reaction
between zinc and copper sulphate: Zn (s) + CuSO4 (aq) Cu (s) + ZnSO4 (aq)




















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Contents


Raw Data3

Observations.4

Graph..5

Calculations6-7

Conclusion 8

Evaluation..9

Works Cited.....10















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Raw Data

Table 1.0 Table to show raw data collected for temperature increase

Data Recorded

Time/s ( 0.1 s) Temperature (0.5C)
0 20.5
30 20.4
60 20.3
90 20.2
120 20.1
150 20.1
180 ( Zinc Added) 20.1
210 24.9
240 31.7
270 34.2
300 36.0
330 37.0
360 37.3
390 37.2
420 37.3
450 37.2
480 37.1
510 37.0
530 36.9
560 36.8
590 36.6
620 36.4
650 36.3
680 36.1






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Observations

Before adding the Copper Sulfate and the Zinc Powder together, the copper
sulfate is an electric blue colorless color, whilst the zinc power is a black color.

The Zinc power immediately reacts with the Copper Sulfate solution, which
becomes noticeably warmer. With the zinc being in powder form, the reaction
begins in almost instantaneous with minimal stirring. At the beginning the solution
has a green/blue color. After the zinc has dissolved, it becomes a dark murky
brown/black color. After the solution was removed from the cup, copper (red-
brown) precipitates at the bottom, having been displaced by the zinc.



















Graph
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Figure 2.0 Change in temperature when Zinc powder is added to Copper
sulfate solution



The blue lines are showing the line of best fit to estimate what the maximum
temperature would have been, but as the lid had to be lifted to add the zinc, heat
was lost.










0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 530 590 650
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

0
.
5

C
)


Time/s ( 0.1 s)
Change of Temperature
Temperature (0.5C)
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Calculations

Knowing the amount of CuSO as well as its heat capacity, we can calculate the
enthalpy change for this reaction using the formula:
Enthalpy change = - (mass of water x specific heat capacity x temperature
change)

H = m x c x t

Mass of water (g) = volume of copper sulphate solution (cm3)
Mass of water = 25 grams
Specific heat capacity = 4.18 J
Temperature change = 28.9 C (49C 20.1C)

Enthalpy change (Joules) = ( 25 x 4.18 x 28.9) J
1. Molar enthalpy change = Enthalpy change / moles of solute used
2. Enthalpy change = 3020.05 J
3. Moles of solute = (

) (

)
4. Molar enthalpy change =

= 120,802 Joules = 121 kJ mol'

As this reaction is exothermic, i.e. heat is released the enthalpy change is
negative:
H = - 121 kJ mol'

I ended up using the line of best fit (you can see the lines on the graph on page
5) to estimate the change in temperature upon adding the zinc in an ideal
situation, where there would have been no heat loss. The gradient shows the
rate in which the temperature decreases.
We use the best it line to estimate the change in temperature upon adding zinc
in a perfect situation, where no heat would be lost. The gradient shows the rate,
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at which the temperature decreases. The steep gradient at the time when zinc
was added indicates that the speed of reaction, I.e. change in temperature per
unit time was very high.

To calculating the percentage error (which is the difference between the
theoretical and actual values) with the formula
()

The percentage error which I achieved was =
()

, which is a
reasonably high percentage error. Some of the percentage error could be put
down to

Mass of zinc: 3.0 g 1.7%
Volume of acid: 25 ml 0.4%
Temperature change: 28.9 C 0.2%

Up to 2.3% could be the error of measurement.
The biggest contribution to the experimental error most likely is the heat, which
was lost to the surroundings.













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Weaknesses and Limitations

The experiment was not repeated and averaged to reduce the impact of
any random errors and to reduce uncertainty.
The interval of readings equal to once every 30 seconds may not be
sufficient to gain enough data - more frequent measurement would have
given a more reliable graph. Some heat was lost to the surroundings and
therefore measured temperature values would not be accurate. This
probably contributed the most to the experimental error being at 44.5%
and therefore would be the biggest weakness of this experiment that
would need to be addressed in particular.
Measurement of 25 ml of copper sulphate had higher uncertainty because
of meniscus measurement uncertainty
Zinc might have had impurities and the styrophome cup might have had
traces of other reactants that introduced random error to the
measurements

Suggestions for improvement

Experiment could be conducted several times and then all the values
averaged to reduce the impact of anomalies and random errors.
Insulations would be useful. Coating and insulating material that would
minimize the heat loss would be useful. Stirring should be done through
the hole. Alternatively, the temperature of the laboratory could be
adjusted, but that is less practical and more difficult to achieve
Zinc should be used in different forms and shapes to investigate how the
shape of the object affects its reactivity. Different concentrations would
give us information on whether concentration of reactants is directly
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proportional to change in temperature and would be useful for making
predictions about other similar experiments.
Measurement should be taken by the lowest point of the meniscus.
As zinc is provided by the technicians, there is not much that could be
done to ascertain its purity. Possibly wash it is some acis that does not
react with zinc. To prevent traces from other experiments, tubes should be
washed properly before the experiment