EXPERIMENT 6

WATER OF HYDRATION

Dianne Kaye Andrade Date Performed: September 22, 2015

Shaira Mae Valero Date Submitted: September 29, 2015
Jun Lynard Colendres

I. Introduction

Hydration occurs when the solvent of the solution obviously is water. A hydrate is a
chemical compound that contains water as part of its crystal structure. Hydrated salts (or
Hydrates) are salts which have a definite amount of water chemically combined. Also, the
water that is being released on heating is called the water of hydration. Since heat is absorbed
during this process, the reaction is "endothermic". Endothermic since attractions are broken,
energy is required. We can observe the separation of solute particles from one another and of
solvent particles from one another. Compounds having vast amounts of water which is
chemically bound in the crystal are usually ionic salts. Salts are compounds composed of a
metal ion plus a non metal (or polyatomic) ion, e.g., sodium chloride (NaCl, and sodium
phosphate (Na3PO4).

Water chemically combined with a substance in such a way that it can be removed (by
the process of heating) without substantially changing the chemical composition of the
substance. Water that is chemically combined with other molecules to form a hydrate mineral
and that is easily removed through heating. The water is tightly bound to the compound, but it
is still a separate and unique compound. The chemical formula of a typical hydrated
compound, such as copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate, is written as CuSO4•5H2O. The dot in
the formula indicates that the two compounds are bound together. Upon heating, the water
can be evaporated leaving an anhydrous salt. CuSO4•5H2O (s) → CuSO4 (s) + 5 H2O (g)
blue white. This process is reversible. By adding water to the anhydrous salt, the hydrate will
reform. Some anhydrous salts can absorb moisture from the air to become hydrated. These
salts are as said to be hygroscopic.

In this experiment, we will observe some properties of hydrates, identify the hydrates
in a compound, observing the reversibility of the hydration reaction, determine the water lost
by a sample of unknown hydrate during heating process and lastly, determining the percent
water in a hydrated compound and the formula of the compound.