PreLab #11

Title: Evaporation and intermolecular attractions

Date: 10/20/16
Purpose: Examine the attractive forces that hold molecules together and the disruptive forces that
break them apart.
Procedure: Attach 4 pieces of filter paper and 5 rubber bands to a thermometer. Connect probes
to LabQuest, put probes into liquids and collect the data.
Pre Lab Questions:
Substance

Lewis Dot Structure

Polar Bonds (yes or

no)

Polar/Non-polar

Water

No

Non-Polar

Hexane

no

Non-Polar

Ethanol

yes

Polar

Acetone

yes

Polar

Substance

T1 ()

T2 ()

t (t1-t2) ()

Water

20.3

13.4

6.9

Hexane

19.0

7.1

11.9

Ethanol

20.2

8.6

11.6

Acetone

19.7

1.2

18.5

Post Lab Questions:

1. A liquid that evaporates more quickly will have a weaker intermolecular forces than a
liquid that takes longer to evaporate because its intermolecular forces break apart easier,
which means the force of attraction between them in less.
2. The intermolecular forces that are present in water are Hydrogen bonding because it
follows the NO FON rule; in Hexane they are London Dispersion Forces because the
molecules are nonpolar; Ethanol is Dipole dipole because it has polar molecules and
H-Bonding because some of these bonds follow the NO FON rule; and Acetone is Dipole
Dipole because it is a polar bond but does not follow the NO FON to be an H-bond.

3.

I predict the t value for 1-butanol would be higher than hexane because it is the same but
has an extra hydrogen bond, thus making it strong and harder to evaporate, and thus
taking more time and a higher temperature. Its structure is also similar to ethanol, but it
has more C-H bonds, and thus making it strong and have a higher temperature than
ethanol as well. But I think it would have a weaker than acetone because acetone has two
H-bonds, where 1-butanol only has one, although 1-butanol has more H-C bonds than
acetone, acetone would still have a higher temperature. N-pentane would be higher than
hexane only because it has more H-C bonds, but it would be lower than ethanol and
acetone because both of those include H-bonds and dipole dipole, while n-pentane only
has LDF which is the weakest of the three intermolecular forces.
4. The reason these two liquids have around the same molecular weights, but different
change of ts is because their types of intermolecular forces are different and therefore
have different strengths. The one that is weaker will have a lower highest temperature
compared the the other liquid with the greater force of attraction. They also may have
multiple of a certain type of bond that might make the intermolecular forces stronger.

Discussion of Theory:
The purpose of this lab was to examine the attractive forces that hold molecules together and the
disruptive forces that break them apart. We did this by looking and examining the relationship
between temperature and intermolecular forces to predict and evaluate liquids, which we could
then prove or disprove based on other groups data. Our theory that water would have the highest
temperature was disproven, because it actually had the lowest, thus disproving our theory that
Hexane would have the lowest. Our data showed acetone to have the highest temperature. Some
causes of error may include: looking at the data tables wrong, setting it for the wrong duration of
time, mixing up the liquids, skipping a step, have the graph the wrong way, or not establishing an
initial temperature.