Year 12 General Integrated Science

Chemical Sciences
Conditions
Period allowed for completion of the task:
Part A: Two 57-minute lessons for research
during Term 3 Week 2
Part B: One 57-minute lesson to conduct the
chemical analysis, identify the unknowns and
justify the choices with reasons.

Task 9
Science Inquiry Skills
Chemical analysis of white crystals
Task weighting
7% of the school mark
for this pair of units

Identifying chemicals is an important skill. Some chemicals that look very similar have very different
physical and chemical properties. Ingesting a chemical that looks like sugar, for example, could
result in kidney, liver and/or brain damage if it happened to be a poisonous substance.
In this practical assessment, on Friday, you will be provided with THREE out of a possible 6
compounds labelled A, B, C, D, E and F. It will be your task to use some or all of the analytical
techniques that you practiced in the practical laboratory session Chemical Reactions.
The compounds are randomly labelled and include:

Sucrose (sugar)

Sodium chloride (table salt)

Sodium phosphate

Magnesium hydroxide

Calcium carbonate

Sodium carbonate
Part A: Research Phase

Tuesday 26 July Wednesday 27 July and Thursday 28 July

To prepare for this task you must research the chemical and physical properties that help to
identify these compounds from one another. Complete a table for identifying all six of the unknown
compounds. The table should include reasons and chemical equations for reactions where
appropriate. This table is the only document you will be allowed to bring into the assessment on
Friday 29 July.
Your completed table will be submitted for marking along with your experimental analysis.
You will need to write a chemical equation for each reaction as an aid to explain to your observations
and conclusions.
Table1: Images of the unknown White Crystals. Visual observations reveal why you need to do analytical
tests! Similar aren't they?

Sucrose

Sodium
chloride

Sodium
phosphate

Magnesium
hydroxide

Calcium
carbonate

Analytical tests allow us to distinguish between these white crystalline solids.

Sodium
carbonate

For each white crystalline solid, research the results of these analytical techniques;

Solubility in water

Precipitation with known ionic solutions. These include silver nitrate and calcium chloride.

Reaction with acid

Record your research in the paper A3 table. Doing this will guide and organise your thinking. If you
prefer you may complete the table within the electronic document. If you choose to do this you must
print it before the laboratory session on Friday and bring it to class.
Part B: Laboratory Analysis of three unknown

Friday 29 July 2016

Bring the table of research

1. Carry out the analytical tests in the order that they appear above. This is because you may use
the solutions to do the following tests.
2. Use only very small quantities of each solid in your test. Keep adding enough water (to all test
tubes) until you can clearly see which has dissolved. Be warned that some of the compounds
dissolve or react very slowly. Patience is required otherwise you may incorrectly identify your solid.
3. Pour any solutions into two clean test tubes ready for the precipitation test.
4. The ionic solutions that you are supplied with for the second stage precipitation reactions are
silver nitrate and calcium chloride.
5. For the test with hydrochloric acid you may use another test tube with a small amount of the solid
added.

Research to bring to the Practical Test

Chemical Test

Solubility in water

Reaction when
hydrochloric acid is
added

Sucrose

Sodium chloride

Sodium phosphate

Magnesium hydroxide

Calcium carbonate

Sodium carbonate

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Observation

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

Inference

HCl(aq)

Reaction when
silver nitrate is
added
AgNO3(aq)

Reaction when
calcium chloride is
added
CaCl2(aq)

Reaction when
calcium hydroxide
(limewater) is added
Ca(OH)2(aq)