Amira Aquarian

February 28, 2020

Chemistry
Recovering a Precise Amount of Copper from a Reaction Lab Write-Up

Pre-Lab Questions:

1. What type of reaction is taking place between copper (II) sulfate and iron?
a. When copper (II) sulfate and iron react, they create a single replacement
reaction. A single replacement reaction is where in a compound, one
element replaces another. Specifically in the reaction we caused, the iron
replaced the copper. This produced iron sulfate and pure copper.

2. Explain what is meant by the symbols (aq) and (s) in the chemical equations. As
part of your explanation explain how the molecular equation and the complete
ionic equation for this reaction are equivalent.
a. In chemical equations, sub symbols are used in order to indicate which
state of matter an element/compound is in. The symbol “aq” means that
the compound/element is in an ​aqueous form, otherwise known as being
dissolved in water. The symbol “s” means it is in solid form.

Complete Ionic Equation:

Fe​(s)​ + Cu​2+​(aq)​ + SO​4​2-​(aq)​ → Fe​2+​(aq)​ + SO​4​2-​(aq)​ + Cu​(s)

Molecular Equation:
Fe​(s)​ + CuSO​4 (aq)​ → FeSO​4 (aq)​ + Cu​(s)
The complete ionic equation and the molecular equation are equivalent
because the iron wants to steal/gain the electrons from the copper, and
because the reaction has to take place in water, this means that it is ionic.
The copper wants to bond with the SO​4​ because it will create a more
stable bond than the iron.

3. Is the molecular chemical equation balanced? Explain how you know.

a. The molecular chemical equation Fe​(s)​ + CuSO​4 (aq)​ → FeSO​4 (aq)​ + Cu​(s)​ ​ is
balanced. This is because the amount of each element/compound on the
reactants side is equal to the amount on the product side. There is one
atom of iron, one atom of copper, one sulfur atom, and four oxygen atoms
on both the reactant side and the product side.
 4. Why is iron replacing/displacing copper to bond with the sulfate and create a new
compound?
a. The iron is replacing/displacing the copper to bond with the sulfate to
create a new compound because when all the atoms are separated, the
sulfur bonds with the oxygen and it steals the electrons from the closest
possible source. In this scenario, it would be the iron atoms because they
have a larger atomic radius than copper.

5. Imagine that you have 5.00 g of Fe and excess (more than enough) CuSO 4 .
Calculate the mass of copper you will recover as a product at the end of the
reaction assuming that all of the iron reacts and you recover all the copper. This
value is known as the theoretical yield.

Table 1: Converting 5 grams of Iron

Equation:
F e(s) + CuSO4(aq) → Cu(s) + F eSO4(aq)
Before: 0.0895 mole xs 0 0

Change: -0.0895 mole -0.0895 mole +0.0895 mole +0.0895 mole

After: 0 xs 0.0895 mole 0.0895 mole

0.0895 mole × 63.54 grams = 5.687 grams of copper

6. Calculate the amount of iron powder and copper (II) sulfate you will need to
generate a theoretical yield of exactly 1.00 g of copper from the reaction.

Table 2: Converting 1 gram of Copper

Equation:
F e(s) + CuSO4(aq) → Cu(s) + F eSO4(aq)
Before: 0.0157 mole 0.0157 mole 0 0

Change: - 0.0157 mole - 0.0157 mole + 0.0157 mole + 0.0157 mole

After: 0 0 0.0157 mole 0.0157 mole

0.0157 mole ✕ 55.846 g Fe = 0.88 grams of iron powder needed

0.0157 mole ✕ 159.55 = 2.5 grams of copper sulfate needed:
 Amira Aquarian
February 28, 2020
Chemistry

7. How is a chemical equation like a recipe? Why do chemists use calculations

involving the mole and molar mass when measuring out the amounts of reactants
used in a particular reaction?
a. Similar to a recipe, a balanced chemical equation is used to calculate the
amount of reactants (ingredients) needed to create the product.
Chefs/bakers use measuring cups and measuring spoons in order to
measure out the correct amount of each ingredient. Similarly to this,
chemists use moles (6.02214 * 10​23​ atoms) as a form of correctly
measuring “ingredients” for their balanced equation.

Results:

Table 3: BCA Table for Reaction in Lab (Measured in Moles)

Equation:
F e(s) + CuSO4(aq) → Cu(s) + F eSO4(aq)
Before: 0.03304693 0.03304693 0 0

Change: - 0.03304693 - 0.03304693 + 0.03304693 + 0.03304693

After: 0 0 0.03304693 0.03304693

Table 4: Mole ↔ Mass Calculation For My Assigned Theoretical Yield

2.1 grams of copper 1 mole = 0.03304693 mole

63.546 grams of copper

Table 5: Converting Moles to Grams (g) for Fe

0.03304693 mole of Fe 55.845 g of Fe = 1.84550581 g of Fe
needed to make 2.1 g of
copper

1 mole
Table 6: Converting Moles to Grams (g) for C uSO4
0.03304693 249.677 g of = 249.677 g 249.677 × = 8.239341
mole of C uSO4 0.03304693 g of C uSO4
C uSO4 needed to
make 2.1 g
of copper

1 mole Math to find 249.677:

Formula:
C uSO4 + 5H 2 O

Molecular Masses:
C u = 63.546 g
S = 32.06 g
O4 = 15.999(4) = 63.996 g
H 2 = 1.01(2) = 2.02 g
O = 15.999 g
(63.546 + 32.06 + 63.996)
+ (5(2.02 + 15.999) = 249.677

Table 7: Weight Measurements During the Lab

Weight of: In grams (g)

150 ml Beaker: 70.44

Amount of Copper Sulfur Used: 8.40

Amount of Iron Powder Used: 1.86

Table 8: Final Calculation for How Much Copper Was Made in Grams (g)
Mass of Filter Paper: 1.22

Mass of Filter Paper and Cu 3.66

Results (Mass of Cu) 2.44

 Amira Aquarian
February 28, 2020
Chemistry
Post Lab Questions:

1. What pieces of evidence do you have that a chemical reaction took place?
a. I know a chemical reaction took place because throughout the experiment,
color change occured, as well as precipitation forming on the beaker
where the reaction took place. The solution took a teal color, until the iron
filings were added, changing it’s overall color to brown/red. Along with
color change being a large indicator of a chemical reaction, seeing
another substance (copper) being made at the end was how I finally
determined that a chemical reaction took place.

2. Predict how the following scenarios would affect the amount of copper you
believed you recovered from the experiment. In particular you should indicate
whether the scenario would increase, decrease or not affect the amount of
copper you believed you recovered.
a. You don’t let the filter paper and filtrate completely dry before measuring
their mass.
i. This would increase the final weight. It would increase because you
would be weighing the excess liquid that hasn’t evaporated, which
in the end would be recorded as copper.
b. You only rinse the filtrate once.
i. Only rinsing the filtrate once would increase the overall final weight.
Rinsing off something means getting all the extra or excess
ingredients out of the solution, leaving only the one you want. When
you only rinse your copper once, it is almost impossible to remove
the rest of the iron sulfate/water mixture, skewing the final result.
c. You let the reaction proceed for three minutes as opposed to the
recommended ten.
i. This would decrease the final weight. By only letting it sit for three
minutes instead of ten, you aren’t allowing the full chemical reaction
to take place, which would lessen the probability of all the potential
copper being made in the end.
d. You use twice as much copper (II) sulfate to make the copper (II) sulfate
solution
i. This would not affect the final weight. You can add as much copper
sulfate to the mixture in order to use all the iron powder. Also, it
would dissolve into the water, so when filtering/draining the copper
 it wouldn’t matter how much copper sulfate there was, as long as
you rinse the final copper more than once.

3. Based on what you did in the lab, would you expect your final measurements to
indicate that you recovered more or less than the theoretical yield of copper? You
should answer this question before determining your actual yield. Explain your
reasoning in the context of which sources of error and uncertainty you believe
are most likely in YOUR experiment.
a. I believe I will recover more copper than the theoretical yield of 2.1 grams
given to me. I miss read the instructions and only rinsed my copper once
with ethanol, instead of multiple times. This would leave extra iron sulfate
that hadn’t been rinsed and drained off.

4. Calculate your percent yield of copper using the formula below.

Table 9: Calculating My Percent Yield

Formula Plugging in the My Percent Yield
numbers

Percent Yield = 100 ✕ (2.44/2.1) ✕ 100 116.19%

Actual
Yield/Theoretical Yield

5. Does your percent yield support the claims you made in answer to question 3?
a. Yes, I predicted that I would end up with more of the copper solution than I
wanted. I was trying to make 2.1 grams of copper, which I may or may
have not done, but I also had at least 0.34 grams of iron sulfate from not
rinsing more than once.

6. Why should it be impossible to have a true percent yield greater than 100%?
a. It should be impossible to have a true percent yield greater than 100%
because, due to the law of conservation of mass, you can’t destroy or
create mass. So in order to get over 100%, you would have to create
mass, which like I just stated, is impossible.