Alum Synthesis

The Synthesis of Alum from Aluminum lab centralized on the creation of potassium aluminum sulfate dodecahydrate from a set amount of aluminum, and using quantitative analysis to then compare the actual yield to the theoretical yield. The synthesis of alum was conducted through a series of steps involving aluminum foil, potassium hydroxide, and sulfuric acid. Given that aluminum is amphoteric, meaning it can dissolve in both strong acids and strong bases, potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid were both suitable for the dissolution of aluminum. There are multiple applications to synthesizing alum; from eliminating waste in the environment by repurposing, to utilizing alum as a medical treatment, the practicality of alum is immense. Any chemical

Given that aluminum is the third most abundant substance as well as the most prominent metal in the Earth’s crust, repurposing it is beneficial to everyone. There are multiple ways to repurpose aluminum, however, a prominent method is converting aluminum into alum. While alum can be naturally occurring in areas of heavy weathering, that oxidize sulfide, and include potassium bearing minerals all occur, it can also be synthesized as shown in this experiment. By synthesizing alum, many practical applications arise. Medicinally, alum can be utilized to stop bleeding in minor cuts, as a treatment for gingivitis and gum bleeding, as well as a preservative for pickling fruits and vegetables. On a larger scale, alum can be used in flocculation to treat dirty water to make it drinkable. In this case, the alum binds to the heavier particles in the water, such as dirt and sand, and causes them to sink to the bottom of the container. Next, a simple filtering would need to be done to render the water

Overall, the experiment produced a successful percent yield of 78.65% of alum from the pieces of aluminum. However, there was a relatively large percent error of 21.34%. This error could have resulted from multiple steps in the experiment. One notable source of error could have stemmed from not obtaining all of the alum crystals from the beaker before aspirating; some crystals could have remained in the beaker, resulting in a lower yield than expected. Another potential source of error may have been only running the alum crystals through the aspirator once; the aspirator removes liquids from the sample, drying them out, however some of the crystals could have ended up in the filtered liquid. By running this solution through the aspirator a second time, a greater yield could have occurred. Finally, when adding H2SO4, white crystals could have formed, resulting in it being necessary to reheat the solution. By not reheating the solution if the crystals did form, a loss of overall alum crystals would be significant, given that they could have formed in these white crystals, rather than the desired alum. To prevent these errors, it would be necessary to ensure that all of the crystals were removed from the beaker by aspirating, as well as filtering the solution more than once. As for the white crystal formation, a