The Effect of Structure and Bonding on Molecules

Introduction

Most of the physical and chemical properties of a substance can be related to the type of bonding present in that substance. In this lab
you will investigate properties such as volatility (how easily the substance is vaporised) and conductivity and explain these properties
in terms of the bonding in the substance involved.

Substances that have ionic bonds contain positive and negative ions. Substances that are covalently bonded contain molecules; if
these molecules contain atoms of different kinds, they may be polar due to the unequal sharing of electrons between the different
atoms. The degree of polarity in a molecule, determined by the shape of the molecule and the relative electronegativities of the atoms
in it, has a great effect on the properties of the substance.

Chemicals to be used

• Ethanol
• Cyclohexane
• Calcium Chloride
• Graphite
• Iodine
• Silver nitrate
• Propanone (acetone)

Experiment 1: The effect of a charged rod on liquid jets

Charge a rod by rubbing it on your hair or on a sweater. Hold the rod about 1 cm from a jet of water and note what happens.

Repeat the experiment using cyclohexane (in the fume hood!) and then ethanol instead of water.

Questions for later:

1. Determine the Lewis and VSEPR structure for water, ethanol and cyclohexane molecules. Include the approximate angles
between the bonds.
2. Are water, ethanol and cyclohexane molecules polar or non-polar? Explain your answer.
3. Explain the effect of the charged rod on the jets of water, ethanol and cyclohexane.
4. What do you think would happen with a rod of opposite charge? Explain your answer.
5. Look up the boiling points of water, ethanol and cyclohexane. Try to explain qualitatively the relative magnitudes of their
boiling points.

Experiment 2: Miscibility of Liquids

Miscibility is defined as how easily substances will mix and dissolve into one another. When liquids dissolve into each other they are
called miscible. In order to test the miscibility you should mix the liquids together and give them a good stir for 30 seconds.

Test the miscibility of a) water and ethanol b) water and cyclohexane c) cyclohexane and ethanol

6. Try to explain the results of experiment 2 in terms of the polarities of the molecules in the different liquids.

Experiment 3: Solubility of iodine in different liquids

Keep the solutions from this experiment for use in experiment 6.

Put one very small crystal of iodine in a test tube. Add 5 ml of distilled water, put a cork in the tube and shake. Try to decide
roughly how soluble iodine is in water.

Repeat the experiment using ethanol, cyclohexane, and propanone (acetone) as the solvent instead of water.

7. What sort of particles does iodine contain? Do they have polarity? Explain.
8. What forces hold these particles together?
9. Explain the relative solubility of iodine in the solvents.
Continue the experiment as follows

A. Add one drop of ethanol to a solution of iodine in cyclohexane.

B. Add one drop of cyclohexane to a solution of iodine in ethanol.

10. What is the colour of iodine vapour (from experiment 5)

11. Suggest a theory to explain the variation of colour of iodine in different solvents.

Experiment 4: Solubility of calcium chloride in liquids

Part A

Keep the solutions from this experiment for use in experiment 6.

Put a few crystals of calcium chloride in a test tube. Add 5 ml of distilled water, put a cork in the tube and shake. Try to decide
roughly how soluble calcium chloride is in water.

Repeat the experiment using ethanol as the solvent instead of water, and finally using cyclohexane as the solvent.

Part B

Before completing part B of experiment 4 you should save your solutions from part A and complete experiment 6. You can complete
this part B after completing experiment 6.

As solutions of calcium chloride are colourless, use the following procedure to decide how much calcium chloride has dissolved.

Read carefully:

After shaking the calcium chloride with the solvent, decant the liquid into a test tube, leaving the excess calcium chloride behind. Add
2 ml of silver nitrate solution to the liquid and give the test tube a really good shake. The amount of solid silver chloride precipitated
will indicate the amount of calcium chloride that was dissolved in the original liquid. Judge the relative solubility of calcium chloride
in the three solvents.

CaCl2 + 2AgNO3(aq) → Ca(NO3)2(aq) + 2AgCl(s)

If there is a lot of CaCl2 dissolved in the solution then a lot of solid AgCl will form, if there is not a lot of CaCl2 in the original
solution, then there will not be a lot of AgCl formed.

12. What sort of structure does calcium chloride have?

13. What forces hold these particles together?
14. Explain the relative solubility of calcium chloride in the three solvents.
15. AgCl is a precipitate. Explain what this term means.

Experiment 5: Volatility of iodine, graphite and calcium chloride

Heat one crystal of each of the solids in turn in a hard glass test tube and judge their relative volatilities (ability to vaporize). You
should heat the solids in the fume hood with a bunsen burner.

16. Try to explain the relative volatility of these three solids in terms of the particles they contain and the forces between them.

Experiment 6: Conductivity

Collect each of the solutions produced in experiments 3 and 4. Test the conductivity of each solution by the following procedure.
Place the conductivity probe in each solution and measure the conductivity.

Note: Keep the electrodes clean and make sure that they are not contaminated with liquid from a previous test. (Have a beaker of
deionized water to clean the electrodes).

17. Give a qualitative explanation of the relative conductivities of the different solutions.

Hint: Electrical conductivity is caused by the presence of mobile charged particles. The more mobile charged particles, the greater the
electrical conductivity.