Rosh Caleb Chan

Matt Taubur
Chemistry Lab 1251 -17
10/17/15
Creating Solutions of Standard Molarity
Introduction:
In this lab a high concentration of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was created and
diluted into several lower concentration samples and measured with a spectrometer. The units of
concentration is molarity which was founded by the moles of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate
divided by the amount of volume in liters. High concentrations of copper (II) sulfate
pentahydrate means that there is a high amount of solvent inside the solute. With more solute
which was distilled water added, the concentration of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was
lowered. The spectrometer measured the amount of light that can pass through each sample of
copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate the data can be measured by absorbance or transmittance.
Transmittance can be converted to absorbance with the -log of Transmittance or A=-log (T). The
data provided by the spectrometer can calculate the actual concentration of each lower
concentration sample with the Beer Lambert's Law which states that there is a relationship
between absorbance and concentration. The difference between measured concentration and
abundance was graphed and actual concentration was be found. With the data collected from the
graph the unknown sample concentration can be calculated.
Procedure:
The experiment first required the spectrometers to be turned on and warmed up, and set
the absorbance to 600 nm. After the spectrometer was prepared 10 samples in test tubes were
made to be use in the spectrometer. 1 of the test tube was filled with distilled water to be used to
calibrate the spectrometer. 4 given sample solutions with known concentrations of .5 M, .2 M, .1
M, and .05 M of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was collected and placed into test tubes. After
the given samples of known concentration was collected 4 samples of .5 M, .2 M, .1 M, and .05
M was created. .5 M was created with the use of the molarity equation which gave the amount of
solid that was needed. The dilution equation was used to calculate the amount of solution that is
needed to be mixed with distilled water until the 20 mL mark this turned the .5 M solution into
a .2 M solution. The process with the dilution equation was repeated to convert the .2 M solution
to .1 M solution and .1M solution to .05 M solution. After the diluted samples was prepared 1
test tube with an unknown concentration of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was prepared.
After all 10 of the test tubes were prepared the test tubes were taken to the spectrometer.
Before the test tubes that contained copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate were tested the spectrometer
needed to be calibrated. The spectrometer was first adjusted to 0% transmittance with a closed
and empty well. After this the test tube with distilled water was wiped and put into the well and
calibrated for 100% transmittance. After the spectrometer was calibrated the 9 test tubes which

contained different concentrations of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was wiped and tested, the
percent transmittance was recorded.

Results:
When the .5 M solution was created the Molarity equation was used. The equation is shown by
(1).
Moles
Molarity=
(1)
Liters
The equation for moles is shown by (2).
Mass
Mole=
(2)
Molar Mass
Molarity is the concentration of the solution, moles was found by mass divided by molar mass
which was seen in (2) and liters was the total amount of volume measured in the problem. With
the molarity equation (1) .2L of a .5 M copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was created with the use
of the number of moles. Moles was used to solve for the amount of grams needed (2).
The dilution equation was used to convert .5 M of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate into lower
concentrations which is shown by (3)
M 1 x V 1=M 2 x V 2
(3)
M1 is the initial Molarity and V1 the initial Volume. M2 is the final Molarity and V2 the final
Volume. .02 L was always used as the final volume. M1 was molarity of the initial solution that
was diluted and M2 was the desired molarity. V1 was the amount of initial solution that is
needed to be mixed with diluted water until it is .02L
The Beer Lambert's Law was used to calculate the absorbance which can be seen in (4).
(4)
A=log (T )
A is the absorbance of a solution. T is the percent transmittance gathered from the different
samples with the spectrometer.
Percent Error is used to give the difference between the actual and measured in a percentage
which is shown by (5).
|measuredactual|
%Error=
x 100 (5)
measured
% Error is the percentage of the difference between actual and measured values. Actual is the
actual value that was solved with the Beer Lambert's Law. Measured Values was the
concentration of the solution.

Overall Data Collected: (6)

Sample

%T

T=
%T
100

A=-log(T)

Measured Actual
conc
conc

% Error

.5M std

25.0

.250

.602

-----------

.5M

-----------

.2M std

56.4

.564

.249

-----------

.2M

-----------

.1M std

71.4

.714

.146

-----------

.1M

-----------

.05M std

83.0

.830

.081

-----------

.05M

-----------

.5M prep

26.2

.262

.582

.5

.495M

1.00%

.2M prep

52.4

.524

.281

.2

.217M

7.83%

.1M prep

69.8

.698

.156

.1

.100M

0%

.05M prep

81.2

.812

.090

.05

.039M

28.2%

Unknown

44.0

.440

.356

-----------

.285M

-----------

Graphed data with Absorbance (y axis) and Measured Concentration (x axis) from table above.
(7)

The line of best fit is shown by the dotted blue line, and equation of the line of best fit used to
calculate the actual concentration. Absorbance is the y axis and Measured Concentration is the x
axis. The line of best fit equation was used to solve for actual concentration with absorbance put
in the y value and solved for x which was the actual concentration.

Discussion:
.5M copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was created by with the Molarity equation (1) to
solve for moles. The moles needed for copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate was then converted with
the moles equation (2) to find the amount of mass which was needed to make a .5 M solution.
The Dilution equation (3) was then used to convert the .5 M solution into a .2 M solution. The
dilution equation solves for how much mL of the solvent was needed before distilled water was
added to the 20 mL mark. Each dilution ended by distilled water added until 20 mL mark. The
results of the dilution equation is seen in table (6). After each sample with different
concentrations went through the spectrometer the % transmittance was found. With Beer
Lambert's Law (4) a graph (7) can be made with the absorbance as the y axis and measured
concentration x axis this gives a line of best fit. The line of best fit equation (7) is used to find the
actual concentration when the absorbance is substituted for the y and x which is the actual
concentration is solved. % Error was then found with the % Error formula (5) this shows the
accuracy of the dilution techniques used.
In the standard solution of .5 copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate the % transmittance
measured was 25.0% with an abundance of .602. In the prepared solution of .5 M copper (II)
sulfate pentahydrate the % transmittance was 26.6 with an abundance of .582. The data gathered
for the prepared solution was relatively accurate to the data gathered in the standard solution.
After looking at both the standard and prepared solutions of copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate a
trend was noticed. The higher the absorbance the lower the transmittance and the higher the
concentration would be. The correlation between the standard and prepared solution followed
this trend.
Conclusion:
In the data a correlation is seen with concentration transmittance and absorbance. When
the concentration was high the transmittance was low and the absorbance was also high. When
the concentration was low the transmittance was high and the absorbance was low. This
correlation is true with both standard and prepared solutions. An example of this correlation is
seen by comparing standard .5 M copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate with a transmittance of 25.0
and absorbance of .602 with standard .05 copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate which has a
transmittance of 83.0 and absorbance of .081. Possible errors that might of affected the results
during the experiment was the spectrometer not properly calibrated or the samples in the
spectrometer heating up which would alter the results.
Sample Calculations:

Molarity :(1)
n
.5 M =
.02 L

n=.5x.02 = .01 moles

Moles :(2)
.01 Moles=

Mass
249 g

.01 Moles x 249 Molar Mass = 2.49 grams

Dilution: (3)
.5 M x V 1=.2 M x .02 L
.5M x V1 = .004
.5 M x V 1
.004
=
.5 M
.5 M

=.008L x 10^3 = 8L

Beer Lamberts Law: (4)

A=log (T )
A=log (.250) = .602
% Error: (5)
|measuredactual|
%Error=
x 100
measured
%Error=
%Error=

|.5 M .495 M|
.5 M

x 100

|.005|

x 100
.5 M
.01 x 100 =1% Error
Actual Concentration :(7)
y=1.0801x+.0477 <- equation for line of best fit
.582= 1.0801 x +.0477.0477
.582 -.0477=1.0801x

.5343 =

1.0801 x
1.0801

.105
=x
1.0801
.495 = x