Deja Reynolds November 5, 2012 Period 4 Ionic vs.

Covalent Bonding Lab Investigation Introduction: Most atoms are never found by themselves; instead they are bonded to other atoms in ionic or covalent bonds. This is because Hypothesis: Table 1: The expected results of testing five different chemical substances Compounds to Chemical Hypothesis 1: Hypothesis 2: Hypothesis 3: be Tested Formula Ionic or High or Low Will it conduct Covalent Melting Point? electricity? Distilled (pure) H2O Covalent Low No Water Sodium NaCl Ionic High Only when Chloride dissolved in water Sucrose C12H22O11 Covalent Low No (sugar) Dextrose C6H12O6 Ionic High Only when dissolved in water Sodium sulfate NaSO4 Ionic High Only when dissolved in water Procedures: PART I. Melting Point and Strength of Bonds 1. Fold aluminum foil into a square that will neatly fit on the ring-stand. Place a small sample of each of the 4 different compounds (water is already melted) on your square of aluminum foil (all 4 at the same time). Be careful not to mix them up & keep track of them! 2. Carefully place the tray on the ring stand and heat with the Bunsen burner (no longer than 1-2 minutes). 3. Immediately begin recording your detailed observations, keeping track of the order in which the samples melt (or dont melt if thats the case) which ones have strong bonds & which have weak? 4. Allow the square of foil to cool and then wash it off into the sink.

Deja Reynolds November 5, 2012 Period 4 PART II. Electrical Conductivity 1. Weigh an approximately 0.1 gram sample of each compound in different wells of a well plate (make sure to ZERO the well plate on the balance). 2. Test the dry compound for conductivity with the tester. Record your observations. 3. Add enough drops of distilled water to the well to dissolve the compound as best you can. 4. Test the solution for conductivity with the tester. Record your observations. Make sure to wash the conductivity tester with distilled water after every use! 5. Repeat for all of the samples Results: Table 2: The results of testing five different chemical substances Part II. Name/Chemical Part I. Melting Conducted Final Conclusion: Formula: Point (1-5; High, Electricity? Ionic or Covalent Med. or Low?) (Yes/No) Bonds? Dry Dissolved 1. Distilled (pure) 1 N/A N/A Covalent Water / H2O 2. Sodium 4 No Yes Ionic Chloride / NaCl 3. Sucrose No No Covalent (sugar)/ 3 4. C6H22O11 5. Dextrose / 2 No No Covalent C6H12O6 6. Sodium Sulfate No Yes Ionic / NaSO4 5 Conclusion: After this laboratory, it was concluded that sodium chloride and sodium sulfate were ionic compounds, while water, sucrose, dextrose were covalent compounds. All of the initial hypotheses were correct except dextrose. From the results, the ionic compounds were those that conducted electricity in water and had high melting points (strong bonds). However, the covalent compounds do not conduct electricity and they have low melting points. Ionic bonds are formed from 2

Deja Reynolds November 5, 2012 Period 4 metal cations (+) and non-metal anions (-) so when they dissolve in water, electricity (moving charge) can flow through the solution. Additionally, ionic bonds are very strong since they have a full valence shell, theyre made up of cations and anions.