Separation Of A Mixtures Lab Report

Purpose:
The purpose of this experiment was to calculate the mass of composition of each component in a mixture containing sand, salt and iron filings.
Introduction:
Many substances that we use on a daily basis are in fact part of a mixture. A scientist separated a mixture to obtain the specific substance that was in need. Many of the compounds and mixtures today are not found in its pure form, but in mixtures. Many scientists have the impression that separating mixtures is an important part of chemistry and modern academics. How can the components of mixture be separated and analyzed?
Background Information: All elements and compounds are pure substances and they are categorized by having specific properties that are unique from other substances. In contrast, mixtures have properties that depend on the components that form them.
A mixture is a combination of two or more pure substances that do not react chemically.
Each component of a mixture keeps its original properties and the proportion of each component is variable. The physical properties of a mixture depend on its composition because the amounts of each component making up a mixture may be different. Some physical properties examples can be used to describe pure substances include solubility, boiling point, melting point etc.
By taking advantage of the unique physical properties of individual components within a mixture, it should be possible to separate a mixture into its components and they can be used by different separation methods - one example is a strainer. Physical changes that can be used to separate the components of a mixture including filtration, evaporation, crystallization, and distillation.
Mass percent composition is a convenient way to express that actual composition of a mixture in terms of the amount of each component. The mass percent of each component in a mixture is calculated as
follows: -
Hypothesis:
If the mass of each individual component (salt, sand, iron filing) is calculated and the total mass of the mixture is weighed then we will be able to calculate the mass percentage of composition. Materials:
1. Iron Filings (Fe)
2. Salt (Sodium Chloride)
3. Sand
4. Mixture of salt, sand and iron
5. Scale
6. Filter Paper
7. Two beakers (One containing mixture, One for sand, One for salt)
8. Hot Plate
9. Calculator
10. Magnet
Experimental Design
Variables
Independent Variable Mass of overall mixture
Dependent Variable Mass of each component
Control Variable The amount of water used (litres)
The amount of heat used (°Celsius) Procedure
1. Obtained mixture containing Sand, Salt and Iron filing from the teacher (Beaker 1)
2. Gathered all materials
3. Used a scale to measure the mass of the total mixture and the container
4. Measured the mass of the magnet
5. Used the magnet to extract iron filings from mixture
6. Measured weight of magnet and iron filings
7. Subtracted the mass of the iron filing with the magnet from the mass of the magnet to get the mass of the iron
8. Dissolved the remaining of the mixture with water
9. Obtained filter paper
10. Obtained beaker 2
11. Measured weight of filter paper and beaker 2
12. Strained out the sand from the mixture by pouring the solution putting it in the filter paper and the salted water goes in to beaker 2
13. Heated both beaker 2 and filter paper to boiling point to evaporate water
14. Measured mass of beaker 2 containing evaporated salt
15. Deducted the mass of the Container to find mass of the salt
16. Measured mass of filter paper containing sand
17. Deducted the mass of Filter Paper to find the mass of the sand
18. Measured mass of first beaker
19. Subtracted mass of container from total mass of mixture to find the mass of original mixture
20. Placed results in the observations table