Introduction: The Law of Conservation of Mass dates from Antoine Lavoisier's 1789 discovery that mass is neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions. In other words, the mass of any one element at the beginning of a reaction will equal the mass of that element at the end of the reaction. If we account for all reactants and products in a chemical reaction, the total mass will be the same at any point in time in any closed system. http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-conservation-of-mass-17395478 Chemical reactions relate to many different relationships and mass relationship is one of the most important coloration. So today’s experiment is going to discover the relationship between mass of Copper(II) Chloride dehydrate and aluminum foil. In this experiment, the conditions are not ideal, so there will be limiting reactant and excess reactant. By finding the limiting reactant, it is easy to find the excess reactant and the mass of each reactant. In this experiment, the equation is given and so the mass of each chemical can be determined. So the relationship should be obvious to see. In a chemical reaction, the total atoms will not transform, however, the mass can be affected by the mass of water in the air. According to the conservation of the mass, the atoms will not change, but the mass of each atom will be affected.
Research question: What is the mass produced by the reaction of copper(II) chloride dehydrate and aluminum foil?
Variable: The mass of all the products, the room temperature, the surface area of the aluminum foil, the concentration of the solution, the temperature of the hot plate.
Materials: refer to “Mass relationships in a chemical reaction”
Procedure: refer to “Mass relationships in a chemical reaction”
Data collection:
Data table 1: Mass of chemicals Mass | Unit | Copper(II) chloride dehydrate | 2.00±0.01 | Beaker 200mL | 68.18±0.01 | Copper | 1.10±0.01 |