United Arab Emirates University

Faculty of Science
Department of Chemistry
Organic chemistry Laboratory for non-majors

Experiment 1:

Melting Point Determination

of Chemical Solids

Name: Shaikha Ahmed Alzbeidi

ID: 201306400
Section:L51
Partner: Mouza Albedwawi
Semester: Fall 2016
Experiment date: 8/9/2016
Instructor: Dr.Ayman N. Alsayyed
Objective:
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1.

To be familiar

with the techniques of melting point.

2.

To determine the

purity of a crystalline solid.

3. To determine the melting points of two different pure solids,
urea and trans cinnamic acid.
4. To determine the melting point ranges of three mixtures of
these two substances, by plot the eutectic point diagram to
generate a melting point pattern for the two solids.

Introduction:
The melting point of a solid is the temperature at which it
changes state from solid to a liquid. At the melting point
the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium.
A solid usually melts over a range of temperatures rather
than at one specific point. The melting point give an
indication of degree for the substances purity. While ,the
melting range is the difference between the temperature
at which the sample begins to melt and the temperature
at which the sample is completely melted.
Pure crystalline solids have a sharp melting point, (melting
range lower than 2 C) and impure samples normally have
melting range larger than 2 C.
If there is one mixture of two compounds, A and B, that
has a lower melting point than any other mixture of the
two compounds. This particular mixture is called the
eutectic mixture. The melting point of the eutectic mixture
is called the eutectic point.
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In this experiment we will find the melting point of the

Pure Urea, Pure Cinnamic Acid, and 3 mixtures of them
have different concentrations.

Experimental:

Materials

Finely powdered pure urea, pure Cinnamic Acid and three mixtures.

Equipment

Melting point
apparatus

Glass tubing

Capillary melting point

tube

Procedure

1. We took about 50-100 mg of thin, finely powdered

samples and fill capillary melting point tube with the
sample by thrusting the open end of the tube into the
powder several times.
2. We repeated the procedure until the tube contains a 1-2
mm column of densely packed powder at the bottom.
3. Then we insert the tube into the melting point apparatus
and set up the melting temperature for the heating
apparatus.

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4. We started heating melting point apparatus and kept our

eyes on the sample to note the start and the end of the
melting range.
5. We took the values of temperatures and kept doing the
same procedure with the other samples.

Result and discussion:

Table1:
Substance

Initial

Final

Melting

melting

melting

range

Temp. C
134
135

Temp. C
136
137

Average
Temp. oC

2
2

135
136

Acid
3. 75Urea-

97

107

10

102

25C.A%
4. 50Urea-

98

102

100

50C.A%
5. 25Urea-

99

103

101

1. Pure Urea
2. Pure
Cinnamic

75C.A%
The melting range for the pure Urea and pure Cinnamic Acid was 2 which
are sharp and narrow and they have high average melting point, these
result shown that because its pure. The rest of data has melting rang > 2
which is a broad range and low average melting point, as in table 1. These
result shown that because they are impurity.

Table2:
Urea
(g)

C.A
(g)

100
75
50
25
0

0
25
50
75
100

nurea

nC . A

ntot

(mol)

(mol)

(mol)

1.665
1.249
0.833
0.416
0

0
0.169
0.337
0.506
0.675

1.665
1.418
1.170
0.922
0.675

Mol.
Fractio
n of
urea
1
0.881
0.712
0.451
0

Mol.
Fractio
n of
C.A
0
0.119
0.288
0.549
1

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In table 2, we use molecular weight of Urea = 60.055 (g/mol) and

molecular weight of Cinnamic Acid = 148.161 (g/mol) to get their
mole fractions then we note that the mole fraction of urea decrease
and for cinnamic acid its increase.
Percent error:
Urea has a theoretical melting point of 132.7C , and Cinnamic Acid
has a theoretical melting point of 133C . calculate the % error in
your experimental melting points values.
erorr =

experimental val uetheoretical vaule

theoretical value

error for Urea=

x 100

135132.7
x 100=1.73
132.7

error for Cinnamic Acid=

136133
x 100=2.26
133

Graph:
Sketch the graph of the eutectic point
Mole
fraction

Temp. oC

135

0.451

101

136

Eutectic point diagram:

Eutectic

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Conclusion:
By the end of this experiment, we learnt the difference between
pure solid and impure solid according to melting point. An impure
solid melts over a wide range and at a temperature lower than that
of the pure solid.
We reach to the eutectic point(the minimum melting range) after
measure the melting points and mole fractions of two crystalline
solid which is Urea and Cinnamic Acid. The average melting point of
three impure mixtures are quite close that maybe because of
personal error or the accuracy of amount of material.
The percentage of error in the melting point of the pure urea equal to
1.73%, and the percentage error of the pure cinnamic equal to 2.26 %.

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