Insolubility Lab

Introduction: The importance of this lab is to get a deeper understanding of how the concepts of solutions and insolubility applies to the lab’s purpose of making chalk using precipitation reactions. A precipitation reaction is when a solid/ precipitate (insoluble) is formed when two solutions that contain soluble salts are combined. Some additional scientific concepts investigated in this lab are insolubility, double replacement, and limiting reactants. Insolubility occurs when a solute is incapable of dissolving in a solvent. A double replacement occurs when both of the compounds’ cations are exchanged. Lastly, limiting reactants are factors that limit and determine the amount of product produced. All of these concepts come together to
Then carefully and slowly add 5.30g of Na2Co3 into the volumetric flask until it reaches the exact measurement.
After removing the volumetric flask off the scale, Slowly add diluted water into the volumetric flask until it reaches exactly 100 millimeters.
Cover/seal the top opening of the volumetric flask with parafilm and mix the solution by placing your thumb on top of the parafilm and flipping the flask back and forth (wait for the bubbles to appear) until the solute has completely dissolved.
Split the solution in half by measuring out 50 mL of the solution into a beaker and give the solution in the volumetric flask to the other group.
Once the 50 mL of CaCl2 solution from the other group is received, combine the two solutions in a beaker and stir until it is mixed.
Set up the the filtering flask by attaching the buchner funnel in the opening top whole and the vacuum pump onto(over) the neck of the flask.
Place filter on the buchner funnel, making sure it is not flat on top because the solution will
After performing this lab, it was found that chalk will precipitate when both Na2Co3 and CaCl2 solutions are combined and filtered. The chalk was able to precipitate from the solution because it is insoluble, whereas the other products remained within the solution because it is soluble. However, there are errors that affect the result of this lab such as lost of solution during the transfer from volumetric flask to beaker and incorrect measurements of the solute. The amount of solute could be incorrect when it is spilled onto the scale while it is being added to the volumetric flask. Due to these small errors, the actual amount produced can never be exact as the expected amount, resulting in the present yield of 31.1% (actual yield/ theoretical yield). Overall, this lab has helped better the understanding of precipitation reactions and how it is applied to chemistry experiments. In addition, it provides fun facts such as the chemical formula for chalk is CaCo3 and that making chalk is not as complicated as one may