Aluminum Foil

Purpose:  To become familiar to with the laboratory and to make qualitative and quantitative observations about physical and chemical changes during a chemical reaction.


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:

1. Grab a beaker, 100mL graduated cylinder, a scoopula, a thermometer, a small square of aluminum foil.
2. Measure 75-100mL of water in your graduated cylinder and pour into beaker. The exact amount is not important in this lab.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

Bubble Lab!

Introduction:

Would the salt and sugar cause the bubbles to be different than the normal mixture?

A soap bubble is a very thin film of soapy water that forms a sphere with an iridescent surface. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few moments before bursting, either on their own or on contact with another object.

Hypothesis:

The sugar bubble will pertain a different color than the regular bubble and salt bubble. The salt bubble will have a clear effect to it and have no rainbow inside it.

Materials:

3 Drinking cups

1 tsp. of liquid dish detergent

1/2 tsp. of table sugar

1/2 tsp. of table salt

3 straws

1 spoon

2/3 cup of water to go in each cup

Procedures:

1. Label  3 drinking cups 1,2, and 3 and measure and add 1 tsp. of liquid dish detergent to each cup. Use measuring cup to add 2/3 of a cup of water then swirl the cups with a spoon to form a clear mixture.

2. Add 1/2 tsp. of table sugar to cup 2 and 1/2 tsp. of table salt to cup 3. Swirl each cup for a minute.

3. Dip the straw into cup one and remove it and blow gently into the straw to make large bubbles. Practice your bubble blowing.

4. Repeat step 3 with the mixtures in cups 2 and 3.

Data:

The normal mixture bubble  (teacher approved)

The sugar bubble 

The salt mixture would not form a bubble.

In doing this experiment we realized many errors could have occurred like the mixture could be different from what they should be because we used a spoon instead of an actual measuring cup.  Also different people were blowing bubbles which could change the consistency of the bubbles being formed.

Discussion:

The normal bubble would form a bubble then fall off of the straw and pop.

The sugar bubble would stick to the straw and you would have to touch it in order for in to be popped. 

The salt mixture did not blow bubbles.

Conclusion:

We reject our hypothesis because it had nothing to do with the color, but it dealt with how long the bubble would last.  The Reason that the soap mixture with sugar lasted longer is because how long a bubble lasts depends on how quickly the surface dries. Glycerin slows down the drying process and that's exactly what sugar is made out of. It allowed the surface to stay wet longer and not dry as quickly.  The salt mixture wouldn't allow a bubble to form because as soon as you tried to blow a bubble the surface would dry very quickly and just pop.