Question: What will happen when you put in aluminum foil with CUSO4 (Water mixed with copper(2) sulfate pentahydrate)? Will it be a chemical or physical change when you add NaCl (sodium chloride)?
Hypothesis: When we add the ball of aluminum foil into the liquid with copper sulfate pentahydrate and without the salt added, there will be a chemical change, but there will be a bigger chemical change when the salt is added to the solution.
Materials:
- Beaker (150 or 250 ml)
- Copper (2) sulfate pentahydrate - use caution
- Toxic substance scoopula
- 100 ml graduated cylinder
- Stirring rod
- Thermometer
- Small square of aluminum foil
Procedure:
- Grab a beaker, 100mL graduated cylinder, a scoopula, a thermometer, a small square of aluminum foil.
- Measure 75-100mL of water in your graduated cylinder and pour into beaker. The exact amount is not important in this lab.
- Using a scoopula, gather some copper(2) sulfate pentahydrate. Again the amount is not important, but feel the scoopula about one quarter full. Place the copper(2) sulfate pentahydrate in the beaker. Use stirring rod until all the solids are dissolved into the liquid.
- Obtain your piece of aluminum foil and crumple it into a loss ball. Place the aluminum foil ball into the liquid. Stir gently for 15 seconds.
- Make sure your scoopula is clean and obtain a large scoop of sodium chloride for the labeled container and add it to the solution. Stir until dissolved.
- After observing, let stand for 10 minutes then dispose of the solution in the specified area. Clean materials thoroughly with soap and water and make sure your lab area is fully cleaned.
Data:
Mixing the copper sulfate pentahydrate thoroughly into the water!
The copper sulfate pentahydrate made the water turn a blueish color.
When we added the salt to the beaker, the aluminum foil produced bubbles
on the part that was in the liquid.
After stirring the mixture and letting the chemicals react, it produced copper rust but it wasn't actually copper, but was the copper sulfate being taken off of the aluminum ball!
But it was a pretty red color!
Discussion: In the beginning we thought there was going to be a huge chemical change when you put in the aluminum ball into the mixture. But nothing happened until you put the salt into into the mixture then a chemical change occurred. We know a chemical change took place because bubbles formed when no heat was added and a precipitate formed also.
Conclusion: We have accepted our hypothesis. In conclusion, a chemical reaction took place between copper ion and aluminum, which produced a copper metal, hydrogen gas, and aluminum ions. A chemical reaction took place because there was an increase in temperature, formation of a precipitate, and a change in color. These are all indicators of a chemical change.
