Determination of Identity of Unknown # 5

dela Cruz, Ma. Carmela and Mauricio, Theresa Marie

Group 9, Chem 156.1, HEJ
December 9, 2017

All liquid unknowns are organic compounds. The group’s unknown was sample number 5. When the
sample was given, the first thing we did was to smell it and we noted that the unknown smells familiar,
as if we have used it many times before.

Experiment 1: Determination of Molecular Weight

Result Error True Value if (-) error True Value if (+) error
47.833 g/mol 43.67% 84.916 g/mol 33.294 g/mol
When we submitted our data for checking, the lab instructor remarked, “Ba’t ang layo?”. So, when we
calculated the true value based on the percent error given to us, we assumed that the true value was
that given by if the error is negative since 84.916 was far from 47.833 while 33.294 was near to it. Upon,
research, the only organic liquid with that molecular weight was dichloromethane.
MW DCM: 84.95 g/mol
Thus, from then on, we focused on checking if our results will correspond to the properties of DCM.
We also remarked that DCM being our unknown make sense because of the familiar smell since we
used that compound multiple times during Chem 35.1.

Experiment 2: Liquid Density

Result Error True Value if (-) error True Value if (+) error
1.2984 g/mL 2.13% 1.3267 g/mL 1.2713 g/mL
Before conducting expt.2, we noticed that the amount of unknown remaining in the bottle was
significantly lower than what we left from expt.1. This implies that the unknown is volatile which is one
of the characteristics of DCM that our instructor from Chem 35.1 told us. Thus, at this point we are pretty
confident that unknown 5 is indeed DCM which is further supported by the result of this experiment.
ρDCM: 1.3 g/mL
Since, the results support our hypothesis that the unknown is DCM, we decided to use the density of
DCM which is 1.3 g/mL for the subsequent experiments.

Experiment 3: Liquid Viscosity

Result Error True Value if (-) error True Value if (+) error
0.478 mPa.s 15.74% 0.567 mPa.s 0.413 mPa.s
ηDCM: 0.41 mPa.s
Experiment 4: Surface Tension
Result Error True Value if (-) error True Value if (+) error
37.5 mN/m 37.87% 60.36 mN/m 27.2 mN/m
γDCM: 28.2 mN/m
Experiment 9: Heat of Vaporization
Result Error True Value if (-) error True Value if (+) error
11.81 kJ/mol 59% 28.8 kJ/mol 7.42 kJ/mol
ΔHvap,DCM: 28.2 kJ/mol

Conclusion

Since true values obtained through the experimental results and given percent error, were more or less
equal to the values of DCM, we therefore conclude that unknown number 5 is dichloromethane.

Chem 156.1, Determination of Identity of Unknown # 5 Page 1 of 1