SCH B201: ATOMIC STRUCTURE AND CHEMICAL BONDING

EXPERIMENT 1 A:

VISUAL OBSERVATION OF EMISSION OF COLORS OF SOME OF THE ALKALI

METALS.

Introduction:

When alkali metals are heated, their outermost electrons are easily exited to higher energy states.
When these exited electrons “drop back” to the ground state each alkali metal emits a characteristic
color.(which occurs in the visible region hence a visual observation).

PROCEDURE:

Make appropriate dilute solutions of the salts NaCl, KCl, LiCI, CaCl 2 using distilled water. Dip a
platinum wire in each solution and quickly remove it and put it on the flame. Note the colour each
sample produces. Test for the presence of metal in tap water.

Exercises:

a) Draw an energy level diagram (sketch) which roughly explains how the above colours are
produced. Explain the processes involved.

b) Draw a table showing the colour emmited by the elements by elements lithium, sodium, potassium
and ceasium. You will need the services of the library for the colours of Rubidium and Ceasium.

c) Explain the major difference between the colours produced by the alkali metals and calcium.

EXPERIMENT 1 B:

The determination of calcium carbonate in egg shells by back titration:

Introduction:
The shell of an egg is composed mainly of calcium carbonate. Recent evidence indicates that if a bird
s food is contaminated with excessive amounts of the pesticides DDT and DDE, the chemicals
responsible for producing carbonate ceases to function properly and the egg becomes soft. In order to
determine the extend to which this happens a method to find the percentage of CaCO3 in egg shells is
employed.

PROCEDURE:
1. Carefully crack egg shell and separate the egg from the rest of egg. Wash the shell with a
stream of water making sure that all the membrane adhering to the shell is removed.

2. Place the shell in a beaker and place in a drying oven at 110oC for 10 minutes. Remove .cool
and grind to powder in a pestle and motar. Dry the powder in the oven and place in a
desiccators to cool.

3. Weigh out accurately (in duplicates) approximately 0.3g of the shell and transfer to 250 ml
conical flask. Add 5 cm3 of ethanol and leave to stand for five minutes.
4. Pipette 50 cm3 of the 0.1 mols dm3 solution of HCL, warm to expel CO2 formed. When the
reaction has finished titrate against the 0.1 moles dm2 solution of NaOH using Phenolthalein
as an indicator.

Equation:

1. CaCO3 + 2HCl CaCl2 + H2O +CO2

2. NaOH + HCl NaCl + H2O

Results and calculation:

1. Present your results in a tabular form.

2. For each experiment;
a) Calculate the number of moles of HCl Originally added to the shell.
b) From titration results and the equation (2) calculate the no. of pf moles of HCl remaining
after reaction with the egg shell.
c) Thus calculate the no. of moles of HCl reacting with the egg shell.
d) Using equation (1) calculate the no. of moles of CaCO3 in the egg shell.
e) Calculate the mass of CaCO3 in the egg shell. F) Calculate the percentage of CaCO3 in
the egg shell.