Enthalpy of Combustion of Alcohols

Enthalpy of Combustion of Alcohols

Procedure

1. Put 150³ of cold water in an aluminium calorimeter and record its

temperature.

2. Support the calorimeter over a spirit burner containing the ethanol

you are going to burn.

Arrange a suitable draft exclusion system to reduce heat loss.

3. Weigh the burner and Alcohol.

4. Replace the burner under the calorimeter and light the wick.

5. Stir the water with a thermometer.

6. When the water temperature has risen by between 15 and 20ºC

extinguish the burner but continue to stir it until the temperature

stops rising.

Record the highest temperature reached.

7. Reweigh the burner to find the mass of the alcohol that has been

burned.

8. Repeat the experiment at least once more.

9. Now repeat the whole experiment 2 times but you have to use

Methanol the first time and Butanol the second time instead of

Ethanol.

Aim: The aim for this experiment is to find the Enthalpy of combustion

of 3 different alcohols Ethanol, Methanol and Butanol by doing that

I'm going to prove my theory.

How I will collect valid results in my planned experiment

I am planning was to do the experiment I will be very carfully in

following the procedure I always will be wearing impervious clothing.I

will be tryingto keep the wind as low as possible by clothing the

windows .When I will be measuring the mass of water I will be using a

measuring zylinder so I could mearure the mass of water very precily

and I weighed it aswell.On the thermometers that we used I could

measure up to 0.0 .

When I will weigh the burner containing the Alcohol in it I will weigh

it as close as our weighing machine could measure it.I will be also

very carefull about the measurement I checked every reading 2 x.

Before I was doing experiment I made a list with the Equipment and

Materials which I needed to do my Experiment