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Pre lab questions, safety precautions and procedure of this lab experiment are explained.
Typology: Lab Reports
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In this experiment, you will perform and observe several reactions of copper. This is a cycle of reactions, because you start and end with the same substance, copper metal. In the first reaction, copper metal is oxidized by nitric acid to form copper (II) nitrate, Cu(NO 3 ) 2. It is then converted to copper (II) hydroxide, Cu(OH) 2 , by reaction with base. When this compound is heated, it is transformed to copper (II) oxide, CuO. Copper (II) oxide is then reacted with acid to form copper (II) sulfate, CuSO 4. Finally, the copper ions in the copper sulfate are reduced to copper metal by magnesium. In theory, you should be able to recover all of the copper that you started with. (The number of atoms of copper is the same throughout all of the reactions.) However, small amounts of copper can be lost during transfers of copper compounds from one container to another. Similarly, small amounts of copper usually get washed away during purification steps. Your goal will be to recover as much copper as possible at the end of the experiment by being very careful in all of the transfers and purification steps that you do. The unbalanced molecular equations for each of the steps are given below:
Safety Precautions:
Reaction 1
In your results and discussion section, you should thoroughly discuss reasons for loss of copper at each step of the reaction cycle. Any major errors you make should always be discussed in this section.
(Remember - always explain your reasoning.)