Hydrolysis and Buffers, take 2

Hydrolysis section

In this part of the experiment you will test several different salt solutions (in a spot plate) with pH paper determine their acidity or basicity and then determine which solution is which.

The 8 solutions are 1.0 M solutions of copper (II) sulfate, sodium sulfide, calcium nitrate, ammonium carbonate, magnesium bromide, sodium chloride, potassium phosphate, and copper (II) acetate.

Re-read section 16.9  in your text and your lecture notes on hydrolysis to prepare you for the experiment.

Buffers

A mixture of relatively large amounts of weak acid and its salt or a weak base and its salt is known as a buffer. Buffers have the property of maintaining a relatively constant pH even when considerable acid or base has been added.

Re-read section 17.2 of your text to prepare for this experiment.

Buffer 'procedure':
1. Make a sodium acetate/ acetic acid solution in a 250 mL volumetric flask. Use ~10 g of sodium acetate and ~20 mL of 6M acetic acid. You will need to know the exact amount of each for step 2.
2. Calculate the pH of what your buffer should be (Henderson Hasselbach?) Measure the pH of 50 mL of this solution. Do they match? Explain the difference if there is one.
3. To your 50 mL of buffer, add exactly 5 mL (volumetric pipet) of 6M NaOH, remeasure the pH.
4. Measure the pH of a 50 mL sample of distilled water. With the pH probe in the solution, add 6M NaOH drop by drop (counting them) until the pH has 'shifted' the same amount as your buffer solution did in step 3. Is the difference large? Why or why not (be complete!)

Lab report:
Very simple. For the hydroylsis section, give the results of your pH paper testing, and what you thik everyone is and exaplin why for each. You would do well by having 8 sentences that start with "I believe solution XX to be YY because ..."

For each step number in the buffer section, give nice organized tables of data (volumes, pH measurements, whatever) and words to tie them together (it should be clear what you are doing) and answer all the questions posed. 

Prelab Questions: (worth 8 points)

1. Calculate the pH of a 0.87 M NaCN solution.
HINT: NaCN dissociates into Na+ (an unexciting acid) and CN-, the conjugate base of HCN. You can look up the Ka for HCN, and therefore calculate the Kb for the BASE, CN-. It is this equation (Kb) that is your equilibrium expression for this problem.

2. What is initial concentration of a sodium acetate if the pH (at equilibrium) is measured to be 9.30? HINT: Same sort of thing as question 1, sodium acetate dissociates into Na+ and acetate ion (a base)......

~MEO 22 Mar 06