Gas

Laws and Gas Stoichiometry

Unit 10 Page 29

Learning Target 10.8:

I can perform stoichiometric calculations, including determination of mass and volume relationships between
reactants and products for reactions involving gases.

Criteria for Success:

I can use volume ratios to determine the volume of any gaseous reactant or product in a balanced chemical
equation.

I can use the gas laws to calculate volumes, masses, or molar amounts of gaseous reactants or products.

Notes
Scan for Video Tutorial Stoichiometry of Gases
A. Gay-Lussac’s Law of ____________________________ ____________________________ of
____________________________ states that at constant temperature and pressure, the
volumes of gaseous reactants and products can be expressed as
____________________________ of small whole numbers.

2H2(g) + O2(g) → 2H2O(g)

B. In stoichiometry calculations where not all desired reactants and products are
gases (and, therefore, volume ratios will NOT apply) we must remember that
the balanced chemical equation will ____________________________ relate amounts in
____________________________ regardless of the state of matter.

C. For stoichiometric calculations involving gases, we often specify the quantity of

a gas in terms of its volume at a given temperature and pressure. We can use
the ____________________________ gas law to determine the amounts in
____________________________ from the volumes, or to determine the volumes from
the amounts in moles.

D. When gases are at ____________________________, use 1 mol = 22.4 L. Otherwise, the

general conceptual plan for these kinds of stoichiometry calculations is as
follows:
 Gas Laws and Gas Stoichiometry
Unit 10 Page 30

Essential Question:
How are the gas laws applied to stoichiometric calculations?

Summary:

Guided Practice
Scan for Video 1-2. Propane, C3H8, is a gas that is sometimes used as fuel for cooking and heating. The complete
Tutorial
combustion of propane occurs according to the following equation.
C3H8(g) + 5O2(g) → 3CO2(g) +4H2O(g)
1. What will be the volume, in liters, of oxygen required for the complete combustion of
0.250L of propane? Assume that all volume measurements are made at the same
temperature and pressure.
2. What will be the volume of carbon dioxide produced in the reaction? Assume that all
volume measurements are made at the same temperature and pressure.
 Gas Laws and Gas Stoichiometry
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Guided Practice
Scan for Video 3. Solid calcium carbonate, also known as limestone, will decompose upon heating to produce
Tutorial
solid calcium oxide, also known as lime (an industrial chemical with a wide variety of uses), and
carbon dioxide gas. How many grams of calcium carbonate must be decomposed to produce
5.00L of carbon dioxide gas at STP? (Note that volume ratios do not apply here because calcium
carbonate is a solid).

4. Tungsten, W, a metal used in light-bulb filaments, is produced industrially by the reaction of

tungsten oxide with hydrogen.
WO3(s) + 3H2(g) → W(s) + 3H2O(g)
How many liters of hydrogen gas at 35°C and 0.980atm are needed to react completely with
875g of tungsten oxide?
 Gas Laws and Gas Stoichiometry
Unit 10 Page 32

Lab: Gas Stoichiometry Rockets

Learning Target 10.9:

I can perform stoichiometric calculations, including determination of mass and volume relationships between
reactants and products for reactions involving gases.

Criteria for Success:

I can determine the optimum ratio of hydrogen to oxygen in a combustion reaction.
I can perform stoichiometry calculations involving the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen gases.

Introduction
Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is a colorless, odorless gas. It is combustible, which means
that it burns quite readily. Hydrogen gas is conveniently generated in the lab by the reaction of zinc metal with
hydrochloric acid. This is described in the following reaction.

Zn(s) + 2HCl(aq) → ZnCl2(aq) + H2(g)

Oxygen, the most abundant element on Earth, is also a colorless, odorless gas. Oxygen gas supports combustion,
that is, it must be present for combustible materials to burn. Small-scale quantities of oxygen gas are conveniently
generated in the lab by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide
requires a catalyst to initiate the reaction. A variety of different catalysts, including manganese, manganese
dioxide, potassium iodide, and even yeast, have been used in this reaction. In this lab, yeast will be used to catalyze
the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and generate oxygen gas. This is described in the following reaction.
yeast
2H2O2(aq) → 2H2O(l) + O2(g)

The purpose of this microscale experiment is to generate hydrogen and oxygen and determine the optimum ratio
for their combustion reaction to give water. The optimum ratio will be used to calculate the mole ratio for the
reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in a balanced chemical equation. The concept of limiting reactants will be used to
explain the results obtained with various hydrogen/oxygen gas mixtures.

2H2(g) + O2(g) → 2H2O

Procedure
Preparing the O2 Generator
1. Fill a Petri dish with tap water.
2. Fill a plastic bottle with 1% H2O2 nearly to the top. You will need to leave some room for the addition of a
yeast/water mixture.
3. Add a couple of pipettes worth of the yeast/water mixture to the plastic bottle with the 1% H2O2 solution and
screw the cap on to the top of the bottle. You should notice the production of O2 gas. (You may have some foam
production at the same time. This is ok, don’t freak out)
4. Place your filled plastic bottle into the Petri dish full of water.

Preparing the H2 Generator

1. Fill a second Petri dish with tap water.
2. Place a couple of scoops of mossy zinc into a second plastic bottle.
3. Fill that plastic bottle that you just placed your zinc in with 0.5M HCl. Fill to the top with HCl. Then screw the cap
on to the bottle. You should notice the production of H2 gas.
4. Place your filled plastic bottle into the Petri dish full of water.
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Unit 10 Page 33

Testing pure H2 and pure O2

1. Completely fill a marked pipette bulb (your rocket) with water and place the bulb over the gas delivery tube to
collect hydrogen gas by water displacement. As the bubbles enter the pipette bulb, the water will flow out of the
bulb and down the sides of the test tube to the Petri dishes.
2. As soon as the bulb is filled with hydrogen, remove it from the gas delivery tube and immediately place a finger
over the mouth of the bulb to prevent the collected gas from leaking out. Keeping the bulb inverted will also
prevent the hydrogen from escaping as it has a very low density.
3. Place the bulb on a launch pad (a sparker) and pull the trigger. Note your observations and place them in Data
Table 1.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 except with oxygen gas.

Testing different ratios of H2 and O2

1. Fill your marked pipette bulb completely with water from one of your Petri dishes.
2. Completely fill a marked pipette bulb with water and place it over the oxygen gas generator to collect oxygen.
3. When the bulb is one-sixth full of gas, quickly remove it from the oxygen tube and place it over the hydrogen gas
generator.
4. Continue collecting hydrogen until the bulb is filled with gas. This bulb should contain a 1:5 ratio of oxygen and
hydrogen.
5. Remove the bulb, cap it with a finger, and determine its relative loudness in the “pop-test,” as described above
for hydrogen and oxygen. Develop a scale to describe how loud this mixture is compared to pure hydrogen and
pure oxygen. Record the result in the data table.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 to collect and test other volume ratios (2:4, 3:3, 4:2, 5:1) of oxygen and hydrogen (see Data
Table 2). Always collect oxygen first, followed by hydrogen. Record all results in the data table.
7. Rank the gas mixtures on a scale from zero to 10 to describe their relative loudness in the “pop-test.” Let the
most “explosive” mixture be a 10, the least reactive gas a zero.
8.Collect various gas mixtures as many times as necessary to determine the optimum ratio of oxygen and hydrogen
for combustion.
Note: The pop-test is obviously subjective, but by repeating it several times with each possible mixture, it should be
possible to determine the most explosive (loudest) gas mixture.

Rocket Launches!
1. Collect the optimum (loudest) gas mixture one more time, but this time leave about 1mL of water in the bulb.
You will place the bulb on a rocket launch pad and ignite it while pointing it at a target. With your instructor’s
consent, launch the micro mole rocket. How far does the micro stoichiometry rocket travel?
2. (Optional) Think of other design factors that might make the rockets travel farther. Try them with the
permission of Mr. Boylan!
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Unit 10 Page 34

Data

Data Table 1: Pop-Tests of Pure H2 and Pure O2

“Pop-Test” Properties of Pure H2

“Pop-Test” Properties of Pure O2

Data Table 2: Pop-Tests of H2:O2 Gas Mixtures

H2:O2 Mole Ratio Relative Loudness
1:5

2:4

3:3

4:2

5:1

Use your Data Table 1 and Data Table 2 in order to draw a bar graph to illustrate the relative loudness produced by
pop-testing various oxygen/hydrogen gas mixtures.

1. Explain the relative loudness of pure oxygen and pure hydrogen in the pop-test.

2. Write a balanced chemical equation for the combustion reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to give water.
 Gas Laws and Gas Stoichiometry
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3. Complete the following sentence to describe the number of moles of each reactant involved in the combustion of
hydrogen:
______ moles of hydrogen react with _______ moles of oxygen to give _______ moles of water

When the reactants in a mixture are present in the exact mole ratio given by the balanced chemical equation, all of
the reactants should be used up when the reaction is over. There will be no “leftover” reactants. However, if one of
the reactants is present in an amount greater than its mole ratio, then that reactant cannot react completely, and
some of it will be left over at the end of the reaction.

4. Use the mole ratio of hydrogen to oxygen from Question #3 to determine what happens when various
hydrogen/oxygen gas mixtures are allowed to burn. Complete the following table to indicate which reactant (H2 or
O2) is present in excess, and how much of it will be left over after the combustion reaction is complete. Note: The
second mixture has been completed as an example.

5. Which oxygen/hydrogen gas mixture produced the most explosive mixture? Explain why this mixture was most
explosive in terms of stoichiometry.

6. Why do the hydrogen and oxygen gas mixtures in the collection bulb not react as soon as they are collected?
Note: Consider the role of the match and the properties of gas molecules at room temperature.