Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to convert copper from one chemical state to another, and return it to elemental

copper. Along the way, we will interpret observations in terms of balanced chemical equations and to practice quantitative lab techniques. Procedure: 1. Obtain a piece of copper wire with a mass of about 0.5 grams. Rinse with acetone to remove fingerprints. Be sure to handle the wire with Kimwipes or tweezers and weigh it. Place it in a 250 mL beaker and in the fume hood. Add 7-8 mL of 16 M nitric acid. Cover the beaker with a watchglass. Record your observations. Swirl the solution until the copper has completely dissolved. Add deionized water until the beaker is about half full. 2. Slowly add 30 mL of 3.0 M sodium hydroxide. Test the basicity of the solution with red litmus paper. Record your observations. 3. Heat the solution using a hot plate to a near boiling temperature while stirring gently to avoid bumping. Record our observations. Continue heating for 5 minutes after the transformation has taken place to coarsen the precipitate. Remove the beaker from the heat and begin warming 200 mL of deionized water for washing. Let the precipitate settle to about the height of the liquid. Decant the supernatant liquid only into a clean beaker. Be careful not to lose any of the precipitate. Add the hot wash to the precipitate and decant again once it has settled. 4. Add about 4.5 g of zinc to the solution and cover the beaker with a watchglass to catch acid spray. Stir vigorously. Add more zinc once the bubbling has stopped. If bubbling recommences, copper oxide is still present. Repeat this until no bubbles form. 5. Get rid of any unreacted zinc by decanting the liquid and adding 10 mL of 6 M hydrochloric acid to the solution. After bubbling has stopped, heat the beaker on a hot plate until no gas evolves. Decant and wash the copper twice with 100 mL of deionized water. For the third wash, add 100 mL deionized water and boil gently for 5 minutes. 6. Weigh a clean, dry evaporating dish. Transfer the copper to the evaporating dish using a rubber policeman. Wash the copper once with 10-15 mL of methanol and twice with 1015 mL of acetone. Decant the liquids. 7. Dry the copper over a steam bath. Heat the copper slowly so the acetone does not evaporate explosively. After the sample looks dry, wait a few minutes before drying the underside and weighing. Repeat this step once. Average the two weights if different, and calculate percent copper recovery. Theory: The experiment demonstrates the law of conservation of matter. The law of conservation of mass states that matter cannot be created and destroyed, therefore we should always end with the initial mass. Another important aspect of the theory behind this lab is the types of reactions used. These reactions are double replacement, single replacement, neutralization, and decomposition reactions. In double replacement reactions, the cations of two compounds are switched, in single replacement reactions, either the cation or the anion of two compounds are switched, in neutralization reactions, an acid and a base react to form water and a salt, and in decomposition reactions, a compound breaks down into smaller compounds or elements. Safety Statement: As always, when in the lab, it is necessary to wear safety goggles. Also, since we are dealing with nitric, sulfuric, and hydrochloric acid, it is important to take extra precautions. Bumping may occur while heating the precipitation, so be sure to stir the solution often.

Observations and Data: Initial mass of copper wire: .688 g Mass of evaporating dish plus dry copper: 42.752 g Mass of empty evaporating dish: 42.156 Mass of recovered copper: .695 g Percentage recovery: 101% 1. Cu + 4HNO3 Cu(NO3)2 + 2H2O + 2NO2 Reaction type: Single replacement Observations: The wire dissolved and emitted a brown gas. The wire dissolved into a green solution, which turned blue after adding water. What is in the solution after the reaction is complete? Copper and nitrate ions are dissolved in the aqueous solution. 2. Cu(NO3)2 + 2NaOH Cu(OH)2 + 2NaNO3 Reaction type: Double replacement Observations: The solution turned green after adding sodium hydroxide, but after stirring it turned a darker shade of blue and a thick precipitate evolved. 3. HNO3 + NaOH H2O +NaNO3 Reaction type: Neutralization What evidence is there that this reaction occurred? The solution gave off heat. What formed in the solution besides copper hydroxide? Sodium and nitrate ions Account for the bulkiness of the precipitate. The precipitate was bulky because it has more mass than the copper wire we started with. It is also suspended in water; therefore it appears to be bulkier than it really is. 4. Cu(OH)2 + heat CuO + H2O Reaction type: Decomposition Observations: The solution turned black. What is removed by the washing/decantation process at the end of step 3? Sodium nitrate and excess sodium hydroxide 5. CuO + H2SO4 CuSO4 + H2O Reaction type: Neutralization Observations: The solution turned blue and the precipitate dissolved. What is in the solution after step 4? Copper and sulfate ions 6. Zn + CuSO4 Cu + ZnSO4 Reaction type: Single replacement Observations: A reddish precipitate appeared and the solution became clear. 7. Zn + H2SO4 H2 + ZnSO4 Reaction type: Single replacement Observations: the solution gained heat and a gas evolved What is your evidence that this reaction occurred? A gas was formed and the solution became hot. 8. Zn + HCl ZnCl2 + H2 Reaction type: Single replacement

Observations: A gas evolved and the silvery excess zinc disappeared. What happens when the zinc is added? Zinc replaces copper in copper sulfate, thus copper appears. What is removed by the washing and decantation near the end of step 5? Zinc chloride and excess hydrochloric acid Calculations: Percentage recovery: ((.695 g Cu)/(.988 g Cu))(100 %) = 101 % Conclusion: The purpose of this experiment was to convert copper from one chemical state to another, and return it to elemental copper. Along the way, we balanced and categorized each reaction while jotting down observations during the procedure. During the first reaction we cleaned copper wire with acetone and reacted it with nitric acid which yielded copper (II) nitrate, water, and nitrogen dioxide gas. The reason this occurred is that nitric acid is a strong acid that the hydrogen ions separate from the nitrate ion which allows the nitrate ion to react with the elemental copper leaving nitrogen dioxide and water. Nitrogen dioxide is insoluble and was the gas that evolved out of the beaker (brown gas). This was a single replacement reaction because one element replaced another element that is in a compound. The reaction is also a redox reaction because the copper loses electrons and the nitrogen gains electrons. The second part of the procedure was sodium hydroxide added to the copper (II) nitrate to yield copper (II) hydroxide and sodium nitrate. The evidence that this reaction occurred was the color change and the formation of copper (II) hydroxide precipitate. This reaction is a double replacement reaction because there are two ionic compounds in solution. Since it produces a precipitate it is also a precipitation reaction. In the third part excess nitric acid reacted with the excess sodium hydroxide in a neutralization reaction and formed sodium nitrate and water. My evidence for this is because there was no visible change in the solution as a result of the reaction only soluble salt and water was formed. In the fourth reaction copper (II) hydroxide was heated to yield copper (II) oxide and water. This was a decomposition reaction because copper (II) hydroxide separated by using the heat from the hot plate. My evidence was that the color of the solution turned to black and when the solution cooled a precipitate settled (copper (II) oxide) The fifth reaction we had copper (II) oxide was reacted with sulfuric acid to form water and copper (II) sulfate. The hydrogen ions were pulled apart from the sulfuric acid by the oxygen in copper (II) oxide. It reacted to form water. The copper and sulfate ions reacted to form copper (II) sulfate. This reaction was double replacement and my evidence was because the color of the solution turned to a blue. The sixth reaction zinc was added to the copper (II) sulfate. Since zinc is more reactive than copper the zinc replaced the copper. It is a single replacement redox reaction because the zinc became oxidized and became part of the soluble compound which left copper molecules to fall out of the solution. The evidence for this was when the blue solution turned clear. The blue ions in the solution were the copper. The seventh reaction was when the zinc reacted with the leftover sulfuric acid. This produced soluble zinc sulfate and hydrogen gas. My evidence for this was when gas evolved from the solution in the form of hydrogen gas. The last reaction was another single replacement reaction with the zinc and hydrochloric acid. This reaction produced soluble zinc chloride and hydrogen gas. The evidence was the formation of small bubbles that evolved from the solution and the zinc dissolved.

At the end all (or most of) the mass of the reaction was conserved. This is because the law of conservation of mass. The reason we ended up with about the same amount of copper at the end of the cycle was because mass was not lost it only changed its form many times. The only reason why some of the mass was lost was because of error which will be explained in the sources of error. The reason of this lab was to gain experience classifying and balancing equations and seeing first hand elements changing forms. Also the development of patience was evident throughout the lab as the instructions were tedious and needed to be followed vigorously to result in minimal loss of copper. Sources of Error: The most obvious source of error for my experiment, since I ended up with too much mass at the end, was adding too much zinc to form elemental copper. I ended up adding way too much zinc which, if not gotten reacted properly with hydrochloric acid, would have remained a solid and mixed with the solid copper. Another possibility for having too much mass at the end could be that my copper was not completely dry when I weighed it. Questions: 1. The percentage recovery might be low because the copper could have been lost in decantation, some might have been left over in the beaker after transferring it to the evaporating dish, or it could have been too hot while weighing it., ,, 2. The percentage recovery might be too high if all of the zinc was not properly removed or if the copper was not completely dry when weighed. 3. See attached 4. See attached 5. A. 23 mL NaOH For calculation, see attached In Step 2, we added 30 mL of sodium hydroxide. I calculated that a total of 23 mL of sodium hydroxide would be necessary. We added 30 mL so that all of the nitric acid and copper ions would react. B. An excess of sodium hydroxide was added in step 2 to make sure the solution was basic and to make sure that all of the nitric acid and copper reacted. C. Not adding enough sodium hydroxide would cause the percentage recovery of copper to be low because some of the unreacted copper would have been decanted.