Determination of an Unknown Carbonate from Carbon Dioxide Gas Evolved

This is an individual lab report. Your lab report will consist of four sections: Introduction, Results, Discussion and Questions. The lab report must be typed using a 12 point font. Reports not typed will lose points. All parts to report must be typed with correct formatting. No excuses. Cursive or ornate fonts are not acceptable. Be careful with spelling and grammar. Poor spelling and grammar detract from a reader’s overall impression of the report. Spelling and grammar errors will lose one point each.

Your report will be graded out of thirty points possible as follows:

Introduction. (3 points) The introduction should include a clearly stated purpose worth one point). The introduction should also contain background information on the use of carbonates.

Results. (7 points) This section should include your results:

Your results should include a table on the data collected, i.e. the actual amount of carbonate use used, the volume of the gas collected, the temperature of the water and the barometric pressure on the day of the experiment.

Your results should also include a set of calculations that convert the volume of gas generated into moles carbon dioxide gas gas. Do not forget to convert for the fact that the gas was collected over water. These calculation should be clearly labeled and easily followed.

Finally you should clearly indicate how the moles carbon dioxide and the mass of carbonate reactant permitted you to identify the unknown divalent cation.

Discussion (7 points):

Your discussion should include at least three paragraphs. In the first, summarize the experiment. In the second, explain your results and your reasoning. Make specific references to your numerical results. In the third paragraph, discuss some potential sources of error and how they might be correct if the experiment were to be repeated. Each paragraph should be in excess of 75 words.

Questions. (10 points – 2 points per question) Answer the five questions at the end of the lab handout. See online version.

Appearance, Spelling and Grammar (3 points) More than one spelling error and you will lose a point. For major grammar errors (sentence fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, etc.), you will lose a point. You will lose points for appearance if you incorporate non-typed material into your report or if you use non-standard paper (e.g. notebook paper) in your report.