What’s In the Bottle?

(Experiment 32)

Roman Bradley

Emory Bouffard

Chemistry 1225-201

03/26/2019
Introduction

The experiment to be conducted will be performed in order to find what the substance is

inside of an unlabelled bottle. The job is given to us by the University, and during our

experimentation we are to create a flowchart that gives an outline of what tests are performed. In

this lab we are going to be using information and techniques learned in past experiments. We

will be using information from labs 1, 2, 4, 7, 12, 16, and 27 to determine what the substance is

in the safest and most efficient way possible.

When the experiment is performed we will be using a flowchart that gives an outline of

the steps and experiments that will be performed to definitively prove what the material is. The

list of substances that the thing in the bottle could possible be is below:

1. aluminum(s) 2. sodium hydrogen carbonate(s) 3. barium chloride(s) 4. ammonia(aq)

5. formic acid(aq) 6. sodium hydroxide(s) 7. hydrochloric acid(aq) 8. iron(III) chloride(aq)

9. ethanol(l) 10. hexane(l) 11. urea(s) 12. potassium sulfate(s)

The first thing that is involved in testing is simply determining if the substance is solid or liquid.

If it’s a solid that gives 6 options instead of 12. Below is a table of useful information when

deducting different options out of the 12.

Is the bottle clear ?

One very helpful method of narrowing down the possible substances in the bottle is just by

looking at the color (or lack thereof). If the substance is clearly a solid or liquid then half the

compounds can be eliminated. If the liquid (or aqueous solution) is clear, that gives the option of
ammonia, formic acid, hydrochloric acid, ethanol, and hexane, as all of these are liquid or

aqueous, and leaves only the option of it being iron (III) chloride.

Helpful information for all the possible chemicals:

Material Polar Conductive Densit Molar Acid or Soluble Ka

(Y/N) (electrolyte y Mass Base(A (Y/N) values
) (g/mL) g/mol /B)
(Y/N)

Aluminum/Al(s) Eleme Y 2.7 26.98 Elemen N

nt t

Sodium Hydrogen Y N 2.2 84.01 B Y 4.2E-7

Carbonate/NaHCO
3​ (s)

Barium Y N 3.86 208.23 solid Y

Chloride/BaCl​2​(s)

Sodium Y Y 2.13 40 B Y 1.585E

Hydroxide/NaOH -14
(s)

Urea/CH​4​N​2​O (s) Y Y 1.323 60.06 Y

Potassium Y Y 2.66 174.26 Y

Sulfate/K​2​SO​4​ (s)

Ammonia/NH​3​ (aq) Y Y 0.674 17.031 B 5.8E-

10

Formic Y Weak 1.22 46.03 A 1.8E-4

Acid/CH​2​O​2​ (aq) electrolyte

Hydrochloric Y Y 1.2 36.46 A 1.3E-6

Acid/HCl (aq)

Iron (III) N Y (in H​2​O) 2.9 162.2 A

Chloride/FeCl​3​(aq)
 Hexane/C​6​H​14​(l) N N 0.66 86.18

Ethanol/C​2​H​5​OH Y N 0.789 46.07 1.26E-

(l) 16

The plausible outcomes that can be expected include all of the chemicals given. Some are

far easier to rule out than others, for example ammonia and Iron(III) Chloride are far easier to

deduce because they happen to have two characteristics that other chemicals don’t, and that is the

color and basicity/acidity (iron(III) chloride is colored and ammonia is basic). The flowchart

gives a good idea of how we’ll go about using experiments and what calculations we’d need to

do.

Equations and constants used:

-pH: determining if it’s acid or basic, acid<7, base>7

-pKa: the pH at the half-equivalence point in the reaction

-Ka: a constant for chemicals, “a” for acid, Kb for base

-pKa=-logKa (equation to calculate constant with pH

-Density=mass/volume

Experimental

For the experimental section we have many options on how to go about the determination of the

substance given. We will be referring to past labs, including the ones given below:

● Lab1: Densities of some Liquids and Solids

● Lab 10: Emission Analysis of Aqueous solutions in groups IA and IIA Metal Salts

● Lab 11: Determination of Chromium (VI) Concentrations via Absorption Spectroscopy

 ● Lab 4: Determination of Percent by Mass of the Components in a Mixture by Thermal

Gravimetric Analysis

● Lab 3:Chromatography

● Lab 2:Specific Heat of Substances

● Lab 16: Gas Laws

● Lab 6: Reaction Stoichiometry

● Lab 13: Solubility, Polarity, Electrolytes, and Nonelectrolytes

● Lab 7: Types of Chemical Reactions

● Lab 12: Determination of the Concentration of Acetic Acid in Vinegar

● Lab 26: Determination of K​a​ or K​b​ for an Acid or Base

● Lab 27: pH and Buffer Solutions

The experiments will include calculations that concern any part of the flowchart created (shown

below).

Flowchart used for determining identity of unknown solution #1

The substance being a solid or liquid we are able to do by putting a drop (or small amount) on a

piece of paper and observing if the paper absorbs it or not. Determining if the substance is

soluble or not can be done by simply putting some of the solid substance into water and mixing it

until it has either all completely dissolved or hasn’t. Using the information from lab

13(solubility, polarity, electrolytes, and nonelectrolytes) we learned that “like-dissolves-like” or

“polar dissolves nonpolar.” Water is polar and hexane is not. And easy way to test if a liquid or

aqueous solution is polar is to see if it mixes with water. If something doesn’t mix with it then it

must be hexane because hexane is one of two nonpolar liquids/aqueous solutions in the list of

possible chemicals.

Another possible way to go around identifying the chemical is by using a pH probe to

measure the pH of the chemical when a known substance is added in. Below is a list of

chemicals that we have available to us:

● 0.1 M Hydrochloric Acid/HCl solution

● pH 4 and pH 7 Buffer solutions

● 0.1 M Sodium Hydroxide/NaOH solution

● 0.1 M Silver Nitrate/AgNo​3 solution

​

● 0.1 M Barium Chloride/BaCl​2​ solution

● 0.1 Iron (III) Chloride/FeCl​3​ solution

● 0.1 Sodium Chloride/ NaCl solution

● 0.1 Potassium Chloride/ KCl solution

● Solid NaCl
For example, it’s possible to have an amount of an unknown solid (hopefully soluble), create a

solution out of it with water, and to measure the pH of it, and add 0.1 M barium chloride (just a

guess) and if the pH of the solution changes, that means that the added solution is not the

unknown.

Titration is also a great way to go about identifying the solution by calculating the Ka

value of the chemical. If the equivalence point is known, then it’s known how many moles it

took to titrate the solution and what the volume of the solution is. With this knowledge, knowing

volume, moles and half-equivalence point, one could easily find the Ka value, and identify it

with the table to Ka values we have.

Results

In the results section we decided to include some questions that we’d be asking throughout the

experiment, just as an outline to find as much information as possible to find the identity of the

solution in the most efficient way possible. All graphs used and numbers will be calculated in the

results section depending on the substance we receive.

1. Solid or liquid? Liquid

2. Density of solid or liquid? Density=1.20 g/mL

3. It is colored? No

4. Is it basic? No, acidic

5. Soluble? Yes

6. Polar or nonpolar? Polar (mixed with water)

7. (If used) what is the equivalence point in titration? pH=8.47 at volume of 200

drops=11.765 grams
 8. What is the specific heat? Not determined

9. What method are you using to find if it’s aqueous, liquid, element or solid? Found Ka

value, checked to see if it matched values given in table.

10. What method(s) will be used to definitively prove that the solution is what you say it is?

Ka value measurements taken, conductivity observed, density calculated. The most

definitive out of these is arguable the Ka value taken, as there’s only one Ka for each

chemical and none of them are close to identical.

After going through all the yes or no questions in the flow chart, coming to the point where it

involved calculations, we decided the most efficient way to go about it is by finding the pKa

value from the titration graph we made (below).

The pKa value was found

to be pH=3.75. Using the

equation pKa=-logKa, and

altering it to be Ka=10​-pKa​,

we calculated the Ka value

to be 10​-3.75​=1.78E-4. This

is 0.02E-4 away from the

Ka value of formic acid

(Ka=1.8E-4). Formic acid also matched the other data we found, showing that its polar, a weak

electrolyte, a density of about 1.2 g/mL, and an acid. We came to the conclusion that we have

sufficient data to prove that the mystery solution in the bottle is formic acid.
Discussion

The first few observations, though simple, were very important. Determining what phase the

substance was in (liquid, solid), if it was polar or nonpolar, and how conductive it was, was very

important in definitively determining what the substance was in the calculations section. There

were multiple options for final experiments to determine what the substance was. We decided to

do a titration, as it seemed the most efficient and best way to find a specific constant for the

solution. Finding the pKa of the unknown and using an equation to convert it to the Ka got the

final result. It matched up with everything we had done thus far so it was pretty undisputable that

the unknown was formic acid.

The results were quite precise, the only thing was that we observed the initial conductivity as a

strong conductor, but formic acid is as weak conductor. Overall the results were found to be

accurate with only 0.02E-4 error in the Ka..

The molarity of the formic acid could have caused the accuracy of the conductivity. Otherwise

our results are almost perfect.

Conclusion

We started the experiment with observations, finding that it was liquid, testing the

solubility/polarity by mixing the unknown with water and conductivity testing with two wires a

battery and a light. We calculated the density (using equation density=mass/volume) and found

the pH. After this we got that it could be two different aqueous compounds. To determine which

it was we did a titration to find the Ka. Putting these results together allowed us to determine

what the unknown was. The experiments definitely answered the central question.
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