9.

2 Measuring enthalpy changes

OCR Chemistry A Teacher and Technician notes

Finding the enthalpy change of combustion of

alcohols

Specification references
 1.1.1 b) c)  1.2.1 a) b) c) d) e) f)
 1.1.3 a) b)  1.2.2 a) k)
 1.1.4 e)  3.2.1 d) (iv) e) h)
 This practical includes techniques and skills relevant to PAG3

Learning outcomes
After completing the practical students should be able to:
 carry out an experiment to find the enthalpy of combustion of two alcohols
 calculate the enthalpy of combustion of each alcohol using the experimental results
 evaluate the accuracy of their results and suggest ways of improving accuracy
 predict the enthalpy of combustion of an alcohol, using the accepted values for the enthalpy
of combustion of a series of other alcohols and use the concept of bond energies to suggest
reasons for the trend in enthalpy of combustion values
 analyse and evaluate the results of an experiment to find the enthalpy of combustion of
hexane, C6H14.

Aims
 The standard enthalpy change of combustion is the enthalpy change when one mole of a
substance undergoes complete combustion, under standard conditions, all reactants and
products being in their standard states.
 In this exercise students will carry out an experiment to find the enthalpy change of
combustion of two different alcohols, methanol and ethanol, and compare their results with
accepted values.

Teacher notes
 The following apparatus is required. Each pair of students will need two burners, one with
methanol and the other with ethanol. You can arrange it so that half start with methanol and half
with ethanol, and they can then swap over. You could also use other alcohols such as propan-1-
ol and butan-1-ol, with each pair doing two alcohols and then pooling results.
 The experiment can be done as an introduction to measuring enthalpy changes, after you
have covered the basic ideas of exothermic and endothermic reactions, the concept of H being
expressed in kilojoules per mole, the sign of H, important definitions, and ideas about bond
breaking and bond forming to calculate H.
 You would need a short introduction to explain how to use the specific heat capacity of water
to find the energy given out by the fuel (use of q  mcT) and how to convert this into kilojoules
per mole of fuel burnt.
 This experiment gives students practice at calculating enthalpy changes using a structured
sequence of questions. Particular attention should be paid to significant figures, units, and signs.
 Question 4 gives them the opportunity to evaluate their results by comparing them with the
accepted values, suggesting reasons for the inaccuracies and improvements which could be made.

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 A follow-up to this question could involve asking students to research how the bomb
calorimeter (the device used to determine accurate enthalpy of combustion values) is designed
to ensure complete combustion and no heat loss.
 Question 5 is an extension question which gives students the opportunity to explain, in terms
of bond energies, the trend in the enthalpy of combustion values for a series of alcohols and why
they are less exothermic than the corresponding alkane.
 The follow-up sheet is designed to give students practice at analysis and evaluation of
experimental results. This involves the same experimental set-up with a different fuel.
 The experimental results are provided, and students work through the questions individually.
This requires them to understand how to perform another enthalpy of combustion calculation and
gives them practice at using percentage errors and a range of different scenarios to evaluate
experimental results.
 The subsequent teacher-led class discussion is easier to manage if all students are
processing the same data (unlike the original experiment where they all performing calculations
using their own results).

Answers and example data

Example Data

Methanol, CH3OH Ethanol, C2H5OH

Initial temperature / °C 21.0 °C 21.5 °C
Final temperature / °C 52.0 °C 53.5 °C
Temperature difference / °C 31.0 °C 32.0 °C
Initial mass of burner / g 141.30 g 138.28 g
Final mass of burner / g 138.76 g 136.40 g
Mass of fuel burned / g 2.54 g 1.88 g
Molar mass of fuel 32 46

Answers for method sheet

1 a Methanol

CH3OH(l)  1 O2(g)  CO2(g)  2H2O(l) (1 mark)

b Ethanol
C2H5OH(l)  3O2(g)  2CO2(g)  3H2O(l)(1 mark)

2 Calculation for methanol

a Heat absorbed by water  mcT
 200  4.18  31
 25 916 J (1 mark)

Number of moles 

 0.0794 (1 mark)

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Heat given out by one mole of methanol 

 326 398 J or 326.4 kJ

H  −326 kJ mol−1 (1 mark)

3 Calculation for ethanol

a Heat absorbed by water  mcT
 200  4.18  32.0
 26 752 J (1 mark)

Number of moles 



 0.0409 (1 mark)

b Heat given out by one mole of ethanol 

 654 083 J or 654.1 kJ

H  −654 kJ mol−1 (1 mark)

4 a Compare your calculated values with the data book values.

Methanol Ethanol
Experimental value of H / kJ mol−1 −326 −654
Data book value of H / kJ mol−1 −726 −1367

The experimental values are about half the actual values.

b  Heat losses to the atmosphere, so temperature rise of water will be smaller. (1
mark)
 Incomplete combustion of fuel so less heat energy is produced. (1 mark)
c  Use insulation to cut down heat losses. (1 mark)
 Burn in pure oxygen to ensure complete combustion.(1 mark)

5 Alcohols are a family of organic compounds containing the OH group. Each member
contains one more CH2 group than the previous one.
The following table shows the standard enthalpy change of combustion of a series of
alcohols.

Alcohol
cH / kJ mol−1
Name Formula No. of carbon atoms
Methanol CH3OH 1 −726
Ethanol CH3CH2OH 2 −1367
Propan-1-ol CH3CH2CH2OH 3 −2021
Butan-1-ol CH3CH2CH2CH2OH 4 −2676
Pentan-1-ol CH3CH2CH2CH2CH2OH 5 −3329

a Complete the table above and draw a graph of  cH against the number of carbon atoms.

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(3 marks)

b Approximately −4000 kJ mol−1 (1 mark)

c  Each alcohol has an extra C–C bond and two extra C–H bonds compared to the
previous one.
 As the number of carbons increases, the same number and type of extra bonds are
being broken and formed so the same extra amount of energy is released. (1
mark)
d Approximately −650 kJ mol−1. This can be obtained by subtracting successive values and
averaging the differences, or by finding the gradient of the graph. (1 mark)
e The bonds in ethanol are stronger than in ethane (so more energy is required to break
the bonds in the reactants), but the same amounts of carbon dioxide and water are
formed (so the same amount of energy is released when the products are formed).
This means that overall less energy is released. (2 marks)
For stretch and challenge, students can sketch the enthalpy profile and calculate the two
values using bond enthalpies.

Answers for follow up sheet

Initial temperature / °C 21.0 °C
Maximum temperature / °C 61.0 °C
Temperature change / °C 40.0 °C
Initial mass of burner / g 146.72 g
Final mass of burner / g 145.02 g
Mass of fuel burned / g 1.70 g
Molar mass of hexane / g mol −1
86

1 Answer in table. (1 mark)

2 C6H14(l)  9 O2(g)  6CO2(g)  7H2O(l) (2 marks)

3 q  200  4.18  40.0  33 440 J (1 mark)

4  0.0198 (1 mark)

5  Heat given out by one mole of hexane   10−3

 1689 kJ (1 mark)

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 H  −1689 kJ mol−1 (1 mark)

6  100  2.5% (1 mark)

7  100  0.5% (1 mark)

8 Error on 4 measurements  4  0.5  2

% error   100  1%

So greater % error (1 mark)

9  Heat losses to the atmosphere, so temperature rise of water will be smaller.

 Incomplete combustion so less heat energy is produced. (2 marks)

10 If the warm water had been used, the water would reach 100 °C so some of the heat energy
from the burner would be used to boil the water. (1 mark)

11  No difference.
 The ratio of energy change to moles of fuel burnt will be the same (or temperature
change will be less, but mass of water is greater so q will be the same and number
of moles fuel burnt is the same). (1 mark)

12 H would appear to be less exothermic because:

 The Mr of cyclohexane is smaller
 So the number of moles would appear to be greater
 H is found by dividing q by the number of moles. (1 mark)

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Technician notes

Safety
Methanol is a HIGHLY FLAMMABLE, and TOXIC – CLEAPSS Hazcard 40B
Ethanol is HIGHLY FLAMMABLE, and HARMFUL – CLEAPSS Hazcard 40A

Students should wear chemical splash-proof eye protection.

Do not allow students to refill spirit burners.

Equipment and materials

The following will be required for each student, or each group of students.
 two spirit burners: one containing  250 cm3 measuring cylinder
methanol, and one containing ethanol  metal clamp stand
 heat resistant mat  balance accurate to two decimal places
 copper can (one balance between four pairs)
 thermometer (0–110 °C)  chemical splash-proof eye protection

Support
As an alternative, you could introduce the idea of q  mcT in a previous lesson, and students
could be asked to plan an experiment to find the enthalpy of combustion of a fuel in advance of
the lesson.
This needs to be followed up with similar questions from past papers in the following theory
lessons, and for homework.

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