The Enthalpy Change of the Thermal Decomposition of Calcium Carbonate

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The Enthalpy Change of the Thermal Decomposition of Calcium Carbonate

Results:

For CaCO3: T1 = 17

T2 = 19

DT= 02

using 2.57g of CaCO3

For CaO: T1 = 18

T2 = 27

DT= 09

using 1.39g of CaO

Analysis:

In order to determine the enthalpy change for the thermal

decomposition of calcium carbonate, we must work out the enthalpy

changes for both the reactions of calcium carbonate and calcium oxide

with hydrochloric acid.

For CaCO3:

Temperature change = 2ºC

To find the enthalpy change of a reaction, we must first work out the

amount of energy taken in by the reaction. This is done by using the

following formula:

E=DT x mass surroundings x specific heat capacity of surroundings

For this calculation, we will assume that the specific heat capacity

of HCl is identical to that of water, and that the shc of water is

4.2J/ºC/g. We used 51cm3 of HCl, so the mass of this is taken to be

51g, as 1cm3 of water weighs 1g (and we are assuming that HCl(aq) has

the same density as water). So, putting this data into the equation,

we get:

E= (-2) x 51 x 4.2

= -428.4J

Then, in order to find the enthalpy change for this reaction, this

value should be converted into kJ, and divided by the number of moles

of the substance (in this case, calcium carbonate). To find the number

of moles used, we divide the mass used by the relative atomic mass of

the substance. So, we get:

No moles = Mass ¸Mr

= 2.57 ¸100.08

= 0.026 mol.

Then we convert our energy into kJ rather than joules, getting 0.4284

kJ, and dividing this by the amount of substance we used. So, this

comes out as:

...

... middle of paper ...

...sregarded.

These problems were not the only ones with the experiment - the major

factor being that it was only performed once, with no repeats - these

values were taken to be correct, with no comparisons made. This could

easily be rectified by performing a suitable number of repetitions -

for example, 4 repetitions could be made, and an average taken. This

would vastly improve the reliability of the end results, as the

average would more accurately reflect the true temperature change.

Overall, there were a large number of problems with this experiment,

and correspondingly, there are a large number of things that I would

like to change if I were to be able to repeat this experiment. The

experiment was successful I that results were obtained, but I suspect

that these results are vastly different to the actual values.

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