Analysis of a Copper Sulfate Sample Essay

The purpose of this experiment is to find the empirical formula of a hydrous copper sulfate sample and the amount of water in the sample. This whole process will be determined in three different experiments. Procedure: Experiment 1 – Percentage of water in sample. The percentage of water in hydrous copper sulfate was determined. Clean, dry and weight the crucible then add sample of hydrous copper sulfate and reweigh crucible. Heat the sample until it becomes white, which indicates that the water was removed. Let the crucible cool, then reweigh. Repeat until there is a constant temperature. Experiment 2 – Percentage of copper in water in sample. Next the percentage of copper in the hydrous copper sulfate needs to be determined. Clean the glassware then get four 50 mL Erlenmeyer flasks with 25 mL of the stock solution and aqueous solvent. Prepare all the unknown sample solutions for determining Beer’s Law Graph. Turn on colorimeter at 100% T then calibrate. Get the data and analyze it if it is correct. Experiment 3 – Percentage of sulfate in sample. Weight out the sample and dissolve it. Heat it and then slowly add the precipitating agent. Heat it for about 30 minutes while assembling the filtering device. Heat the aluminum pan with the filter, cool and then weigh it. Filter out barium sulfate solution, dry out filter and weight the sample and filter. Heat and weigh repeating until it is constant. Discussion and Errors: The main error that occurred was that my partner and I entered the wrong numbers in the Concentration section resulting in incorrect data. We put the incorrect concentration levels and we had no time to correct it. Everything in the calculation of the empirical formula came out precise though, with such little error. My highest error percent was Water with 1.5% which could have just been that I didn’t burn it enough.