CHEM 142

Physical Chemistry I

Experiment 1

Liquid Density

September 07, 2012

Abstract The purpose of this activity was to determine the densities of different salt solutions using the pycnometer and hydrometer as a tool of determination. Appropriate statistical tools were utilized to treat the data obtained in the laboratory. All statistical treatments were done at 90% confidence level and the condition upon which the densities are obtained are at 300C. In the analysis, it has been found out that the concentration of sea water is 3.4% m/v in terms of salt. With a pooled standard deviation of 0.004%m/v, the reliability of the result is acceptable. With these, the experiment is a success.

Introduction Density, , is defined as the ratio of mass m of a substance to its volume, v. Because volume expands with increasing temperature, density is thus greatly influenced by temperature. In a liquid system, the number of particles present in the solution also affects density. When the concentration is increased density is also increased. Consequent to the above concept, we can solve for the concentration of a solution with known analyte but unknown concentration using linear regression. In this paper, sea water salt concentration will be analyzed. This can be done by obtaining the density of salt solutions with known concentration for the linear regression plot, then plugging in the density of unknown salt solution which is the seawater, then calculate for its density using appropriate variables. Thus, this paper seeks to determine the concentration of unknown concentration of salt in sea water by employing hydrometric and pycnometric determination method and provide practice for chemistry major students in dealing with this type of analysis.

Methodology A. Solution preparation Salt solutions with concentrations of 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 percent (g/mL) were prepared by dissolving 2 g NaCl(S) in 98 mL water for 2 percent salt solution, continuing using proportionality of NaClwater solution up to 8%. B. Pycnometer determination method Pre-boiled distilled water was used throughout the density determination of solutions. The determination was carried out at 300C and at constant pressure condition. a. Calibration of Pycnometer Three 50 mL pycnometers were washed, dried, and cooled to room temperature. The pycnometers were weighed to constant weight and then the weight was recorded as the weight of pycnometer. . The pycnometer was then filled with distilled water and then the mass of water in air was calculated from the difference of the mass of water in pycnometer and mass of pycnometer. The actual volume of pycnometer was calculated from the mass of water in air. The determination was done in triplicates. The actual volumes of individual pycnometers were obtained using appropriate statistics. b. Determination of Density of Salt Solutions Calibrated pycnometers 1, 2, and 3 were filled with the prepared salt solutions and then weighed. The weights were noted and the densities of individual solutions were calcultaed as a function of their concentrations. A correction to vacuo was applied in the calculation for the densities of solutions. The densities were calculated using appropriate statistical tools. Unknown salt solution as sea water was analyzed for its density and then the density with correction to vacuo and appropriate statistics was calculated. C. Hydrometric Determination of Density of salt solutions.

A 100 mL graduated cylinder was filled with salt solution. A hydrometer was dipped in the solution and the density was noted. The density was obtained and noted as a function of the concentration of salt solution. D. Treatment of Data The mean densities of all salt solutions in pycnometric determination were compared with the mean densities of the salt solutions in hydrometric concentration at 90% confidence limit. The grand mean was obtained with the corresponding pooled standard deviations of salt solutions. A calibration curve was constructed using the data obtained from standard salt solutions, and then the concentration of salt in sea water was obtained by linear regression equation using the obtained density of the salt solution.

Results and Discussion Density determination was employed to calculate for the concentration of salt solution with unknown concentration. Pycnometric and hydrometric determination of density was also employed. In pycnometric determination, three 50mL pycnometers were calibrated. Table 1 presents the pertinent data in the calibration of pycnometers. TABLE 1 Calibration of Pycnometer at 300C
Wt Volume Wt Density Corrected Pycnometer Mean H2O (g) (g/mL) (g) (mL) volume 50.6505 0.99565 50.59669 50.81775 51.0699 0.99565 51.01564 51.23853 51.0704 0.99565 51.01614 51.23903 51.09844 52.3564 0.99565 52.30078 52.52928 52.3802 0.99565 52.32455 52.55316 52.3797 0.99565 52.32405 52.55266 52.54503 51.5408 0.99565 51.48604 51.71099 51.5137 0.99565 51.45897 51.6838 51.5137 0.99565 51.45897 51.6838 51.69286

Pycnometer Trial 1 2 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 2 3 3

STDEV

0.243085

0.013644

0.015698

The actual volumes for the pycnometer were presented in table 1. As manifested, the volume of pycnometer is not exactly 50mL. As such, calibration is really critical in this acitivity. After the calibration, the densities of salt solutions were determined using the calibrated pycnometers. Table 2 shows the densities of salt solution and sea water using pycnometric determination. TABLE 2 Densities of NaCl solutions and unknown as sea water

Results and Discussion Table 2 presents the densities of salt solutions. From the densities of salt solutions with known concentration the concentration of NaCl in seawater can be estimated. The concentration of sea water as a salt solution will be calculated later on. Hydrometric determination was also employed in the determination of densities. Table 3 shows the densities of salt solutions at 300C. TABLE 3 Densities of Salt Solutions using Hydrometeric Determination
%m/v salt 0 2 4 6 8 sea water Density (g/mL) trial 1 trial 2 trial 3 mean stdev 0.995 0.995 0.995 0.995 N/A 1.015 1.015 1.015 1.015 N/A 1.02 1.02 1.02 1.02 N/A 1.0418 1.045 1.04175 1.04285 0.001862 1.04175 1.0583 1.05 1.050017 0.008275 1.0195 1.0233 1.021 1.021267 0.001914

Hydrometric and pycnometric determination of densities of substances show a slight deviation to each other due to apparatus limitations. Appropriate statistical tools were utilized and it was found that at 90% confidence limit, both methods show no difference in the results. Thus, table two shows the calculation of grand mean for the densities of the solutions and the concentration of sea water in terms of NaCl was presented with linear regression equation y=0.0.996x + 0.0066. TABLE 4 summarized densities of salt solutions and concentration of sea water
% m/v 0 2 4 6 8 seawater pycno hydro Grand mean 0.994754 1.011851 1.020559 1.039514 1.047039 1.018626 Spooled 0.003887 0.002228 0.003072 0.002228 0.006822 Concentration[seawater] 0.004384 3.4 % (m/v) NaCl

0.9945087 0.995 1.0087015 1.015 1.0211178 1.02 1.0361772 1.04285 1.0440617 1.050017 1.0159845 1.021267

Table 4 can be better understood using the calibration plot illustrated by figure 1.

1.06 1.05 Density (g/mL) 1.04 1.03 1.02 1.01 1 0.99 0 2 4 6 8 10 Concentration (%m/v) Calibration plot sea water y = 0.0066x + 0.9963 R = 0.9832

Fig. 1 Calibration of salt solutions and the determination of concentration of unknown Figure 1 illustrates the significance of linear regression to the determination of unknown with the construction of a calibration curve of known salt solutions. With 10% uncertainty, it can be concluded that sea water is 3.4% m/v salt.

Conclusion In this paper, the concentration of sea water was analyzed in terms of %m/v NaCl. With appropriate statistical tools, most reliable density from two methods was obtained, supplemented by their pooled standard deviations. At 90% confidence limit, the two methods show no difference in their results. The density of the sea water being analyzed is not purely contributed by NaCl. Other dissolved gases such as NH3 and O2 can also account for the density of sea water. Other substances may still be present, since sea water is a real sample. Even with these, the activity was very successful in providing the chemistry major student to provide practice in the utilization of density of known salt concentrations to the concentration of unknown salt solution with the use of Linear Regression method and/or calibration construction method. With these at hand, it can be concluded that the determination is a total success.