Experiment 2: The Chemistry of Copper
I. Introduction
Copper is one of the most important metals because it is one of the best conductors of heat and electricity and an alloying element in bronze and brass. Copper is a soft metal with a bright orange-brown color in which is often called “copper color”. Also, copper is an element that is chemically combined with several of compounds in nature. Usually, these compounds are blue or blue-green depending on the copper(II) species. In this lab we are to observe many of the physical and chemical properties of copper by cycling copper via several chemical reactions; those reactions being, Oxidation Reduction, Acid-Base and ...view middle of the document...
I noticed that there was a double layer of colors within this reaction. The bottom layer was a green/blue color and the upper layer was a blue color. These were the distinguished colors that I noticed, but the overall color was a light blue precipitate. To test the basicity of the solution, I grabbed a red litmus paper and tested the solution. If the solution turned the red litmus paper to blue, it meant that the solution was complete. Therefore, the solution was complete due to the fact that the red litmus paper turned blue.
Part C: Decomposition Reaction
Since the precipitate, Cu (OH)2, from part B already had a volume of 60 ml there was no need to add any more water. However, the magnetic stir bar speed up the chemical process because stirring the process was taking up a large amount of time, more than eight minutes. For that reason, the magnetic stir bar quickly changed the color. The bottom of the beaker contained black precipitation of CuO resulting into a colorless solution.
Part D: Double Displacement Reaction
At this point the black precipitate, CuO, from part C still remains in the beaker. Since the beaker was placed in the hot plate, I had to wait for the colorless solution of CuO to cool down to room temperature, which took approximately about 10 minutes. As the black CuO was poured into a clean Erlenmeyer, vapor/gas was formed inside the flask. Since 6 M HCL was added, it caused the solution to turn green.
Part E: Complex Formation
At this point, I removed the filter funnel containing the CuO and then I pour 10 mL of 6 M aqueous ammonia solution into a small graduated cylinder. Using a disposable pipette, I added the 6 M aqueous...