Chemical Reactions of

Copper

Ehsan Rahman
Class 4
February 28, 2011
Purpose:
 The purpose of this lab is to explore the different types of reactions achievable with the element
copper. These reactions were done by adding certain chemicals and elements such as nitric acid,
sodium hydroxide, zinc and sulfuric acid.

Data:
 Copper
o Initial Amount Copper: 1.69 g
o Final Amount Copper: 6.46 g

Questions/Calculations:
1) Beaker with copper (55.70g) – Empty beaker (49.25) = 6.46 g Copper

final mass
2) Percent Recovery = ( initial mass )
∗100
6.46
382=
1.69

3) Reaction 1:
Cu(s)  +  4HNO3(aq)    Cu(NO3)2(aq)  +  2NO2(g)  +  2H2O(l)
Reaction 2:
Cu(NO3)2(aq) + 2 NaOH(aq)  Cu(OH)2(s) + 2 NaNO3(aq)
Reaction 3:
Cu(OH)2(s)  CuO(s) + H2O(aq)
Reaction 4:
CuO (s) + H2SO4 (aq)  CuSO4 (aq) + H2O (l)
Reaction 5:
Zn(s) + CuSO4(aq)  ZnSO4(aq) + Cu (s)

4) Reaction 1:
Decomposition
Reaction 2:
Double Replacement
Reaction 3:
Decomposition
Reaction 4:
Double Replacement
Reaction 5:
Single Replacement
5) Reaction 1:
 Bubbling
 Lightening color
 Green liquid
Reaction 2:
 Fumes
 Solids Forming
 Odor
Reaction 3:
 Black participate forming
Reaction 4:
 Solution turned light blue
Reaction 5:
 Color change
 Bubbles forming
 Gas being emitted
6) A precipitate is the formation of a solid inside a solution. This solid usually sinks to the bottom,
leaving the solution on top. The precipitate must be washed because it may be attracting other ions
by Vander Waal forces. Also, some of the solution may be stuck to the precipitate or be trapped
under it.
7) Decanting is when the solution is poured out of a mixture, leaving the precipitate behind in the
original container. This allows for the precipitate to be used in further experiments, without having
to worry about side effects coming from the solution left over from before.
8) We had over 100% of “copper” at the end of the experiment. This is physically impossible, so the
explanation for this is the acetone used at the end of the experiment to dry up the water left from
rinsing and decanting the final copper. This acetone was stuck to the surface of the copper particles
by Vander Waal forces, and added extra weight.
9)

10) This experiment shows the way that copper was turned into different metals, but they all contained
copper in a way. So this proves that it is possible to recycle metals to make other metals, but it is
impossible to make another element out of one element.

Conclusions:
This lab proved the way that copper could be run through a series of reactions to create different kinds
of metals (all including copper.) These reactions added other elements to the copper, creating copper
compounds. These compounds were generally precipitate and the solution carried the other elements
used in the experiment. This allowed for a low loss of copper, while allowing the creation of different
copper compounds.

Error analysis:
Due to the many reactions being carried out, there is a high chance of error in this experiment. For
example, some elements used could be old/contaminated, throwing off results. The biggest problem we
had was the final copper being more than the initial copper. This is possibly because of the addition of
zinc or more likely because of the acetone used to dry up the water left from rinsing the copper. The
acetone could have (and probably was) stuck to the copper and thus added more weight