Ahmet Ulusoy College

How Can Pure Substances Be Differentiated?

IB Chemistry HL Internal Assessment





Candidate Name: evval Beli
Session Number: 006615-006


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How Can Pure Substances Be Differentiated?
Objective
To determine the boiling point of distilled water and salt solutions with different
concentrations and identify substances by using boiling points.

Research Question
How can the boiling point be used to differentiate pure substances?

Background Information
Boiling point is a physical property that differs pure substances such as elements and
compounds from one another. Each pure substance has a standard boiling point, hence it can
be used to identify an unknown substance or determine whether a known substance is pure or
not.
Melting and boiling points are affected by the nature of bonds within substances. For
example, ionic compounds tend to have high melting and boiling points as the forces of
electrostatic attraction between the ions in the lattice are strong and thus require high energy
to break. Intermolecular and intra-molecular forces cause each substance to have different
physical properties, thus varying the amount of heat needed as energy break bonds while
changing states.
Water (H
2
O), is also known to have a considerably high boiling point because of the
intermolecular forces between water molecules. Water molecules contain hydrogen covalently
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bonded to a very electronegative oxygen atom therefore these molecules are attracted to each
other by a particularly strong type of intermolecular force called a hydrogen bond. Hydrogen
bonds are very strong forms of intermolecular attraction and cause the molecules containing
these bonds to have significantly higher boiling points than the hydrides that do not have these
bonds. (Brown & Ford, 2009)
When a substance, table salt in this case, is dissolved in water, some of the hydrogen bonds in
water and ionic bonds in table salt (NaCl) would be broken. Positive ends of water molecules
(H
+
) will be attracted to the negative ions in table salt (Cl
-
) and the negative ends (O
2-
) will
attract positive ions (Na
+
) in NaCl. These attractions are caused by ion-dipole bonds which
are even stronger than the hydrogen bonds. Therefore, with this alteration in the type of
intermolecular bonds, a mixture, salty water, will form and the melting and boiling points of
water will change.

Diagram 1: Ionic compound of NaCl dissolving in distilled water. a) Undissolved NaCl
crystal surrounded by water molecules. b) Water molecules associate with Na
+
and Cl
-
ions.
c) Na
+
ions (showed in green) are attracted to hydrogen atoms in water molecules, Cl
-
ions
(showed in purple) are attracted to oxygen atoms in water molecules. (Halifax Regional
School Board, 2011)
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Design
Variables
Independent Variable
Concentration of distilled water and salt solutions will be altered.
Dependent Variable
Boiling point of solutions with different salt concentrations will be measured.
Controlled Variables
Same hot plate is used to heat each solution and all substances are heated at the
same temperature.
Amount of water in the erlenmeyer flask is kept constant at 100 cm
3
throughout
the experiment. Escape of water vapour was prevented via using a rubber stopper.
Room temperature was constant in the laboratory environment. Windows were
closed; heaters and air conditioners were not turned on. Hence, the boiling points
of the solutions can more accurately be recorded.


Measuring the Variables
Apparatus
Erlenmeyer flask, 250 cm
3
(10 cm
3
) (1)
Thermometer (0.5C) (1)
Stirring rod (1)
Right angled glass tube (1)
Rubber stopper, with two holes (1)
Watch glass (2)
Hot plate (1)
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Beaker, 100 cm
3
(5 cm
3
) (1)
Digital balance (0.01 g)

Materials and Safety Equipment
Distilled water (100 cm
3
)
Table salt (30 g)
Safety googles
Lab coat

Setting up Experiment
1. Clean all glassware and rinse them with distilled water.
2. Pour 100 cm
3
of distilled water into the 250
cm
3
erlenmeyer flask. Then add some small
porcelain chips into the flask to regulate
boiling.
3. Lubricate the holes of the rubber stopper
with glycerol. Connect the thermometer and
right-angled glass tube with rubber stopper,
then close the flask with rubber stopper.
4. Put the erlenmeyer flask on the hot plate and
fix thermometer to the support rod.
Caution: The thermometer should not touch
the bottom of the erlenmeyer flask to get
more realistic temperature reading for the
solution. Picture 1: Completely set-up experiment.
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Method
1. Turn on the hot plate and heat the water until temperature rises up to 90C. Record
this temporature as initial temperature.
2. Start the timer and read the temperature every minute for ten minutes. Record the
readings.
3. Turn off the hot plate and let the water cool down to
70C.
4. Take out the rubber stopper, add 10 g of table salt into
the water and mix it with stirring rod.
5. Close the flask with rubber stopper which is connected
to thermometer and right-angled glass tube.
6. Turn on the hot plate and reheat the solution up to 90C. Record this temperature as
initial temperature.
7. Start the timer and read the temperature every minute for ten minutes. Record the
readings.
8. Turn off the hot plate and let the water cool down to 70C.
9. Take out the rubber stopper, add 20 g of table salt into the water and mix it with
stirring rod. Repeat steps 5 to 7 and record the readings.

Caution: Do not allow water vapour to escape the erlenmeyer flask throughout the
experiment to maintain the volume of water.




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Results
Raw Data
Other than the recorded data, additional observations have been made during the experimental
process. These observations are as follows:
Thermometer in the 100 cm
3
of distilled water showed 100C six minutes and
twenty one seconds after the timer has been started. Temperature stayed
constant at 100C thereafter.
Salty water with 10 g salt started forming bubbles about six minutes after the
timer has been started, indicating boiling, and the temperature stabilized at
103.7C after two minutes.
Temperature increase of salty water with 30 g salt slowed down after six
minutes but has not stabilized during the experiment.
Distilled water has been observed to heat up more quickly with addition of salt.

Time (min)(1 s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

0
.
5

C
)

Distilled
water
90 91.4 93 94.6 97.2 98.7 99.3 100 100 100 100
S
a
l
t
y

W
a
t
e
r

10 g
salt
90 92.1 94.3 95.8 98 100.6 102.5 103.3 103.6 103.7 103.7
30 g
salt
90 93.6 96.4 97.9 100.2 103.2 106.1 107.4 108 108.3 108.5

Table 1: Temperature readings of distilled water and solutions with different salt
concentrations.



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Processed Data

Temperature of 100 cm
3
distilled water increased gradually until it reached 100C around
seven minutes, suggesting that water started to boil at this temperature. To be able to visualize
the overall trend in the temperature change of distilled water during experiment, data points
have been plotted on graph:

Graph 1: Temperature readings of 100 cm
3
distilled water taken for ten minutes.

Even though the trend of Graph 1 is a gradual increase, stabilization is observed in data points
following the point (7,100). Temperature (y-axis) does not show any variation after that point,
suggesting that the line of best-fit should show a similar pattern. Logarithmic curve would
represent the stabilization over time accurately; however it would be insufficient to show the
difference in temperature between minutes 0 and 1. Thus, inverse exponential curve is used to
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show the overall trend of temperature readings of 100 cm
3
distilled water. RMSE (Root Mean
Square Error) value of the curve in Graph 1 is fairly low, 0.7478, indicating a good fit.
As water is heated, the particles move faster and so the temperature increases. Some
molecules will have enough energy to break away from the surface of the liquid so some
water evaporates. At the boiling point of water, there is sufficient energy to break all the
intermolecular bonds. The added energy is used for this process, not to increase the kinetic
energy, and so the temperature remains constant. (Brown & Ford, 2009)

Graph 2: Heating curve of water. More energy is required during evaporation than melting
as all intermolecular bonds are broken during this process. (The University of Texas, 2013)
As seen in Graph 2, temperature of water stops increasing while changing states. It is very
well known that water boils at 100C under standard conditions. 100 cm
3
distilled water in the
experiment started boiling in between sixth and seventh minutes, and its temperature
remained at 100C beyond that point. Hence, it can be concluded that the boiling point of
distilled water has been successfully observed.
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To be able to compare differences between temperature change of distilled water and salty
water more efficiently, data points for 10 and 30 g salty water solutions in Table 1 have been
plotted on separate graphs, using best-fit inverse exponential curve again.

Graph 3: Temperature change of 10 g salt and 100 cm
3
distilled water solution.
In Graph 3, the curve seems steeper than in Graph 1, thus it can be concluded that the boiling
point of salty water with 10 g table salt is higher than the boiling point of distilled water.
RMSE value of the curve in Graph 3 is 0.8439, which is a bit higher than the value in Graph 1
but not high enough to consider the curve as unfit. To be able to give reason to the difference
between the boiling points of saline solutions and distilled water, the concentrations of salty
water solutions have been calculated:
Molarity (M) =



n(NaCl) (10 g) =

= 0.17 mol
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Molarity=

= 1.7 moldm
-3

% concentation=

100 = %10
As seen in Graph 3, temperature increase stabilized about minute 8 and was constant at
103.7C for nearly 3 minutes at the end of the experiment. Thus, it can be concluded that %10
saline water solutions boiling point is 3.7C higher than distilled waters. Comparing
literature values (Lide, 2005) with the results obtained in this experiment:
29.2 g of salt in 1 kg water is known to increase the boiling point by 0.5C.
1 kg=1 L, hence 2.92 g of salt in 100 cm
3
water raises the boiling point by 0.5C.
For salty water with 10 g salt:

x = 1.71C
The boiling point of the salty water solution with 10 g salt in the experiment was
approximately 2 C higher than the literature value. This situation is most probably caused by
random and systematic errors and will be investigated in evaluation.
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Graph 4: Temperature change of 30 g salt and 100 cm
3
distilled water solution.
The best-fit inverse exponential curve in Graph 4 seems to be even steeper that the curve in
Graph 3. RMSE value has also increased to 0.9016, but again, this is not a significant change.
Another point that differed Graph 4 from graphs 1 and 3 was that there was no discrete
stabilization in this graph. This was an unexpected result and could be linked to time
limitations of the experiment. Even though there was not a stable temperature recorded to
consider as the boiling point, temperature reading in minute 10 could be used to approximate
the difference between graphs.
n(NaCl) (30 g) =

= 0.51 mol
Molarity=

= 5.1 moldm
-3

% concentation=

100 = %30
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Therefore, it could be said that %30 saline solutions boiling point is approximately 8.5C
higher than distilled waters. Comparing literature values with the results obtained in this
experiment:
For salty water with 30 g salt:

x = 5.14C
The boiling point of the salty water solution with 30 g salt in the experiment was
approximately 3.36C higher than the literature value. Seeing a proportionate increase
between the values obtained for the solutions with 10 g and 30 g salt, the presence of
systematic error(s) can be assumed.








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Discussion
Concentration of mixtures that have been observed in this experiment showed differences in
the boiling points. The 30% salty water solution increased the boiling point of water more
than the 10% salty water. Pure substances have literature boiling points dependent on their
intermolecular forces which can be used to differentiate them from mixtures. Referring back
to background information, it could be said that more hydrogen bonds have been disrupted
and replaced by ion-dipole bonds. Hence, this experiment suggests that an increase in the


ratio would raise the boiling point proportionately.

Conclusion
Considering all data given and assessed above, an answer to the research question of this
experiment could be given. All pure substances have certain boiling points and so
experimenters can use these points to identify an unknown liquid or to test the purity of items.
Boiling point is directly related to the intermolecular attractions within a substance.
Interference of other substances disrupts the bonds between molecules of pure substances,
causing variations in the boiling points. Concentration of these additional substances has also
been observed to alter boiling points. Even though the boiling points of mixtures vary, the rate
of temperature increase stabilizes for all substances after a while.



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Evaluation
Several problems have been encountered due to limitations of equipment and method of the
experiment. Thermometer was only able to measure up to 110C, which was a temperature
nearly reached with 30 g salty water solution. One of the holes of the rubber stopper used to
close the erlenmeyer flask was too wide, so a piece of plastic had to be stuck next to the
thermometer in the hole. Some water vapour escaped when rubber stopper has been taken out
to add table salt in the erlenmeyer flask, and even though a slight amount has escaped, this
situation has caused the volume of distilled water used to decrease, affecting the result of the
experiment.
Unexpectedly, no stabilization has been observed in the graph of 30% saline water (Graph 4).
This situation has been caused by the limitation in the duration of the experiment. If the time
measured after the solutions reached 90C was longer, stabilization over time could more
easily be observed in graphs 1, 3 and 4. Also, even though the temperature and pressure of the
room was kept constant, the experiment was performed in an open environment; hence
random errors will be attained no matter the number times the experiment was performed.
Even though the best-fit curve found for the graphs, the inverse exponential curve, has
consistently reflected the trend and the RMSE values were fairly low; there were some data
points which significantly deviated from the curve. These variations are most probably caused
by random errors and thus, do not affect the curves overall fit to the graph.
Deviations from the literature values can be caused by many factors. Table salt used in this
experiment was for commercial use; hence its purity may differ from other brands and NaCl
for experimental use.

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Improvements
Factor Possible Effect on the
Experiment
Improvement
Rubber stopper with
different sized holes
Caused water vapour to escape
from the flask, leading to a slight
decrease in the boiling point.
Using a rubber stopper
with properly sized holes
to be able to fit the
thermometer.
Thermometers limit was
nearly reached
Thermometer could have been
damaged, not only constraining
experimenter to redo the
experiment, but also causing
leakage of poisonous mercury to
the environment.
Using a thermometer with
wider range in order to
observe higher boiling
points.
Expected stabilization
could not have been
observed in Graph 4 due
to limits in the duration of
the experiment
Boiling point of distilled water
with 30 g salt could not have been
observed properly, leading to
difficulties in answering the
research question.
Extending the experiment
to 15-20 minutes in order
to observe the overall trend
on the graphs more
accurately.
Possible inaccurate
observations of the
experimenter
Cause the experimenter to enter
inaccurate data in the data table,
consequently increasing the
percentage error for the processed
data.
Making more than one
experimenter measure the
temperature and/or using
an ebulliometer.
Heat loss to the
environment
Temperature readings in each
minute will show slight
differences when the experiment
is repeated because some amount
of heat from the hot plate will
escape to the air.
Repeating experiment in a
closed, insulated system.


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Works Cited
Brown, C., & Ford, M. (2009). Higher Level Chemistry. Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited.
Halifax Regional School Board. (2011, March). Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace.
Retrieved October 01, 2013, from
http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/benoitn/adv%20chem%2011/homework/2011/chem11_hw_march2011
.htm.
Lide, D. R. (2005). CRC Handbook of Chemistry, Internet Version. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press.
The University of Texas. (2013). Heating Curves (revisited). Retrieved September 23, 2013, from
http://ch302.cm.utexas.edu/physEQ/physical/selector.php?name=heat-curves-revisit.
Warning signs were retrieved from:
http://www.seton.net.au/signs-labels/labels/safety-labels/mandatory-pictos/international-labels-lab-
coat-picto-s9334.html
http://www.jactone.com/health-safety-signs/personal-protection/eye-protection/wear-goggles-
symbol.html
http://www.gsbhealthandsafetysigns.co.uk/caution-hot-water-sign.html on October 4, 2013