STUDY OF CONSTITUENTS OF ALLOY

INTRODUCTION:
An alloy is an homogeneous mixture of two or more metal or a metal
or a non-metal. Alloys are usually harder than their components but
very often less ductile and less malleable. Thus the hardness of gold is
increased by addition of copper to it. The melting point of alloy is
always lower than the melting points f it constituents metals. Other
properties of such as reactivity towards atmospheric oxygen and
moisture, mechanical strength, ductility, colour, etc. also undergo a
change when an alloy is made from its constituent metals.
Alloys are generally made to serve following purposes:
(i)To modify chemical reactivity. When sodium is used as reducing
agent it is too reactive to be used but its alloy with mercury, called
sodium amalgam can be safely used as reducing agent.
(ii)To increase hardness. Hardness of gold is increased by adding
copper to it,
(iii)To increase tensile strength. Nickeloy, an alloy of nickel(1%),
copper(4%) and aluminium(95%) has high tensile strength.
(iv)To lower the melting point. Solder metal which is an alloy of tin
(30%), and lead (70%) has very less melting point as compared to
melting points of tin and leads.

Alloy Composition
Copper 50-90%

Brass Zinc 20-40%

+ small amount of tin, lead and iron

Copper 60-90%

Tin 5-35%
Bronze
+ small amount of lead, iron and zinc

Copper 85-90%

Zinc 1-3%
Gun Metal
Tin 8-12%

(v)To modify the colour. Aluminium bronze, an alloy of copper and

aluminium has beautiful golden colour.
(vi)To resist corrosion. Iron gets rusted and corroded. Its corrosion
takes place with time but stainless steel which is an alloy of iron, nickel,
chromium and carbon does not get rusted.
Alloys are prepared from metals by the techniques of fusion,
compression and simultaneous electro-deposition. The complete
analysis of an alloy involves two steps, qualitative and quantitative
analysis. In qualitative analysis, the components of alloy are found and
in quantitative analysis their percentage composition is determined. In
the present project we will carry out qualitative analysis only.

OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT:
In this project, our aim is to know the various metals present in the
given sample.

EXPERIMENT-1

To analyse a sample of brass quanlitatively.

Requirements:
China dish, Test tube, Funnel, Filter paper and common laboratory
reagents.
Theory:
A small piece of brass is dissolved in 50% nitric acid when metals get
converted to their nitrates. After the removal of excess nitric acid, the
solution is tested for Cu2+ and Zn2+ ions.
4Zn + 10HNO3 (dil.) ---- 4 Zn (NO2)2 + N2O + 5H2O
 3 Cu + 8HNO3 (dil.) ---- 3 Cu (NO3)2 + 2NO + 4H2O

PROCEDURE:
(i)Place a small piece of brass in a china dish and heat this with
minimum quantity of 50% HNO3 so as to dissolve the piece
completely.
(ii)Continue heating the solution till a dry solid residue is
obtained .Dissolve solid residue in dil. HCl and filter. Add distilled water
to the filterate.
(iv) Pass the H2S gas through the filtrate. A black ppt. of copper sulfide
is obtained. Separate the black ppt. and keep the filtrate for the test of
Zn2+ ions. Dissolve black ppt. by heating them with 50% HNO3. To this
solution add ammonium hydroxide solution Appearance of deep blue
colour in solution shows the presence of copper ions in the
solution.
(v)To test for Zn2+ ions, boil the filtrate to remove H2S gas , then add
solid NH4Cl to this and heat NH4Cl.Add excess of NH4OH so that a
solution is ammoniacal. Now pass H2S gas through this ammoniacal
solution. Dirty white or grey precipitate indicate zinc. Separate the
precipitates and dissolve it in minimum amount of dil. HCl. Boil to expel
H2s gas and add potassium ferrocyanide solution, white or bluish
white ppt. confirm Zn2+ ions in solution.

RESULT:
Brass contains copper and zinc