Experiment #6 – Equilibrium Study

Sierra Megonnell, Kyle Lovisone, Dr.Miller

CH113-01 Quantitative Analysis II Laboratory
Chemistry Department, Seton Hill University

INTRODUCTION CONCLUSIONS
DATA & RESULTS
• Since the theoretical Kc value is 200, we found
• The goal of the experiment is to find the
Table 1. Absorbance Data for Part 1: Beer’s Law that our numbers are substantially low.
equilibrium constant of iron thiocyanate.
• Using colorimetry, the average absorbance of
Sample # Average Absorbance • The percent error ended up being 61.34%
A1 0.208
different solutions made up of either 0.1 M or A2 0.539 when the Kc values are averaged.
0.00382 M iron, 0.004 M thiocyanate, and 1.0 M A3 0.787 • Sources of error include: pipetting, not filling
A4 0.857
nitric acid. or overfilling the fiducial line, and any errors
• The initial and equilibrium concentrations of the Table 2. Absorbance Data for Part 2: Equilibrium Constant
Sample # Average Absorbance
in A would mess everything up. Temperature
reactants and the equilibrium concentration of the B1 0.111 also was a source of error, but we could not
product are found. B2 0.207 control that.
• The equilibrium constant is then found by doing the B3 0.183
• Our Beer’s law plot ended up being more
the concentration of the product over the product of B4 0.213
B5 0.138 exponential than linear.
the reactants’ equilibrium concentration.
Table 3. Tabulated Data for the Determination of K c
All are in [FeSCN 2+
] eq [Fe 3+
] initial [Fe 3+
] [SCN -
]initial [SCN-] Kc
mol/L uilibrium equilibrium equilibrium

METHODS B1 2.82*10-5 1.53*10-3 1.50*10-3 4.00*10-4 3.72*10-4 50.54

• A colorimeter (a device used to measure color B2 7.20*10-5 1.15*10-3 1.08*10-3 8.00*10-4 7.28*10-4 91.58

intensity) is used in both parts of the experiment. It B3
is set at 470 nm for both parts as well. B4
• In part 1, different amounts of thiocyanate, 0.10 M B5
iron, and nitric acid are used to create the 4
solutions that are put into the colorimeter. A blank
is also created in order to calibrate the colorimeter.
• In part 2, different amounts of thiocyanate, 0.00382
M iron, and nitric acid are used to create the 5
solutions that are put into the colorimeter. A blank
is also created in order to calibrate the colorimeter.
• In both parts, the absorbance was measured 3 times
in order to get an average.
6.10*10-5 9.55*10-4 8.94*10-4 1.00*10-3 9.39*10-4 72.67
7.47*10-5 7.64*10-4 6.89*10-4 1.20*10-3 1.13*10-3 95.95
4.05*10-5 3.82*10-4 3.42*10-4 1.60*10-3 1.56*10-3 75.91 FUTURE DIRECTIONS
• Do a couple more samples with different
amounts of the solutions.
• Find the equilibrium constant of a different
product.
• More trials with the same solutions.
• Class average for the results to find Kc.

Figure 1. Beer’s Law Plot for Part 1