Anhydrous Copper Sulfate Experiment

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The expected moss of anhydrous copper (II) sulfate should have been .834g instead of .694g. The water lost through the heating should have been .471g instead of the .694g that was actually lost. The water lost was much larger while the mass of the anhydrous copper (II) sulfate was much smaller. If the mass of the water lost was too low than something that could have caused this is that the hydrated copper (II) sulfate was not heated correctly. Not all of the water would have been evaporated if the crucible was taken off the Bunsen burner to soon. If the mass of water lost was too large than something that could have caused this is the loss of copper (II) sulfate during the experiment. This could have occurred through the mixing of the hydrated copper (II) sulfate while it was burning on the Bunsen burner. …show more content…

This would have caused the mass of the product to be much smaller than it was supposed to be. Another scenario that can explain this is that the copper (II) sulfate was heated passed its anhydrous state and caused the breaking down of copper (II) sulfate. In part two of the experiment the formula of the hydrated magnesium sulfate was calculated to be MgSO4 ·8H2O. The formula name would be magnesium sulfate octahydrate. The correct formula is MgSO4·7H2O meaning the name should have been magnesium sulfate heptahydrate. The larger amount of water loss could have been caused by the excess heating of magnesium sulfate resulting in some magnesium sulfate breaking down. Another error could have been that some of the magnesium sulfate was taken out during the stirring process with the spatula. Some magnesium sulfate could have been left on the spatula and not put back in the

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