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Mindy Wei
Chemistry 1411-026 (Group 6; Partners: Yazmine Tembunde, Jessica Wilburn)
19 October 2015
CSI: Unknown Compound Lab
Introduction:
Unknown compounds can be found in situations in daily life such as pharmaceuticals,
environmental science, and police investigations. Identifying these unknowns could assist
scientists in finding cures for diseases, furthering environmental health, and discovering new
drugs being illegally distributed.1,2,3 Unknown compounds in pharmaceuticals can lead to
products with higher or lower toxicity, and therefore affect their effectiveness they could
inhibit or induce enzyme processes and metabolize pathways in the human body that are
sensitive to environmental changes.1 Identification of compounds that contain compounds that
cause mutagens and act as possible carcinogens could prevent the environment from sustaining
the effects and upsetting balances in marine life and in the atmosphere.2 Denmarks police
conducted an experiment analyzing the compounds found in trafficked synthetic drugs in 2008.3
Analysis of compounds can be conducted using tests available in a laboratory setting. Solubility
helps scientists determine the identity of a compound by using solubility rules, leaving a smaller
pool of possible compounds that can then be tested more specifically. Testing for the pH of a
compound dissolved in salt can give insight about the basicity or acidity and can be predicted
once it is dissolved in water. When the salt is a metal hydroxide as metal hydroxides usually
behave as bases, it will have a high pH value (>7 pH). Using pH paper and dipping it into a
solution of the compound and comparing the color of the pH paper to the color scale on the
container can confirm the pH of the salt solution. Upsetting pH balance can be related to cause of
mutagens in carcinogens in the environment, and therefore correcting the imbalance could solve
the environmental issues. Conductivity of a salt, which is dependent on the concentration of ions
and therefore has no standard value, is a result of its ability of the ions that make up the salt to
dissociate on a molecular level and can be used to help determine the identity of an unknown

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compound. The conductivity of the unknown salt can be compared to the conductivity of a
known salt of the same concentration to compare their similarity and further the experiment to
conclude the identity of the unknown. Flame tests can be conducted to specifically determine the
cation of an unknown compound. As a solution of an unknown salt is placed in the flame, the
heat excites the electrons on the outermost electron shell and the electrons jump to a higher shell
a chemical property, producing a specific flame color for each type of cation. Additional tests
that can be used to determine the identity of a unknown salt/compound are reacting insoluble
compounds with a strong acid such as hydrochloric acid or nitric acid and seeing if bubbles are
formed, and, in a lab with more extensive equipment, procedures such as chromatography and
mass spectrometry can be used to determine the identity of the compound. 3
Discussion:
The preliminary experiment led to the conclusion that the unknown compound was
calcium chloride (CaCO3) as it would not dissolve in water, but would dissolve in the presence of
a strong acid (HCl) and create bubbles of CO2. The second experiment required the synthesis of
the unknown compound with Na2CO3 and CaCl2 to produce CaCO3 and NaCl shown by the
reaction: Na2CO3 (aq) + CaCl2 (aq) 2NaCl (aq) + CaCO3 (s). The solid CaCO3 was then filtered
out with vacuum filtration and dried on a hot plate, and its purity tested by comparing the
conductivity of the synthesized compound to a lab compound. The percent yield of the
experiment was 101%, which can indicate the presence of impurities in the synthesized
compound due to lab errors and limitations.
Limitations to the experiment included the difficulty of determining the color of the flame
when determining a cation. The test had to be repeated multiple times to confirm the cation was
calcium and some of the flames looked more orange than red. To better the results and more

On my honor as a student, I pledge that in have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.
Mindy Wei

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specifically confirm the color of the flame, a spectrometer can be used to determine the exact
wavelength, if the equipment were available giving the experiment better qualitative data.
Another limitation was the impurity of the vacuum filtration system, which caused impurities to
be filtered into the synthesized solid CaCO3 and caused the inaccurate percent yield. To correct
these results, sterilized lab equipment can be used to ensure no unwanted material is filtered into
the synthesized compound and upset the percent yield. Improper drying could also have been a
limitation to getting the correct percent yield as the heating was done on a hot plate, and only
carried out once. To better this limitation, the synthesized compound could be dried multiple
times until there was no mass change and therefore provide better qualitative data.
Future experiments could include the identification and synthesis of an insoluble
compound, which would then require more extensive testing such as using the silver nitrate tests
and barium chloride test along with the flame test and sodium hydroxide test to test for anions
and cations. This experiment did not require these tests due to the insoluble nature of CaCO3. It
was important to identify the compound using both physical properties (solubility) and chemical
properties (flame color) as it provided more extensive qualitative data. More than one compound
could have the same physical properties, but not the same chemical properties, and vice versa.
References:
1. Kosjek, T. Mass spectrometry for identifying pharmaceutical biotransformation products.
TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry. Dec. 2007. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
2. Le Lacheur, R. Identification of Compounds in Environmental Samples. Department of
Environmental Sciences, UNC Chapel Hill. Dec. 1993. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
3. Reitzel, L. Idetification of ten new designer drugs. Wiley Online. Nov 2011. Web. 19 Oct.
2015

On my honor as a student, I pledge that in have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.
Mindy Wei