Name: Ferraris, Queen A.

Date Performed: March 12, 2015

Lacson, Dina L. Date of Submission: March 19, 2015
Regatalio, Kyle Dymer
Experiment No. 5
Conductivity Experiment
I. Introduction
Conductivity of electrolyte solutions is the measure of its ability to conduct
electricity. In many cases, conductivity is link directly to the total dissolved solids. Do
solutions conduct electricity? That would be the question that might play on our
mind. Electricity as one of the most important things here on earth, is a free flow of
electrons in a system. Substances only conduct electricity when they contain loose
charged particles. The loosely held outer shell electrons of metals are sufficiently
mobile to conduct electricity. An electrolyte is a solution that contains free ions that
behaves as an electric conductor. Electrolytes produce positive and negative ions that
act as conductor of electricity. Ionization energy of a substance greatly affects the
conductivity of a substance. There are homemade apparatus that serves as
conductivity apparatus that could test the conductivity of a substance.
II. Data and Results
MATERIALS DEGREE OF BRIGHTNESS CLASSIFICATION
Tap water Medium Moderately weak electrolyte
NaCl High Strong electrolyte
Distilled water ------ Non-electrolyte
NH4Cl High Strong electrolyte
NaOH High Strong electrolyte
HCl High Strong electrolyte
NH4OH Medium Moderately weak electrolyte
NaCl crystals ------ Non-electrolyte
A. Determination of Conductivity

B. Identification of ions
TABLE 5B: COLORS OF SOLUTION/IONS
0.10 M Formula Color of Positive Ion Negative Ion
Formula Color Formula Color
solution of Solution
Potassium
KOH Colorless K+ Colorless OH- Colorless
hydroxide
Hydrochlori
HCl Colorless H+ Colorless Cl- Colorless
c acid
Sulphuric
HSO4 Colorless H+ Colorless SO42- Colorless
acid
Potassium
KCrO4 Yellow K+ Colorless CrO42- Yellow
chromate
Copper(II)
Cu3SO4 Blue Cu2+ Blue SO42- Colorless
sulfate
Iron(III)
FeCl3 Yellow/brown Fe3+ Yellow/brown Cl- Colorless
chloride
Cobalt(II)
Cu(NO)3 Red Co2+ Pink NO3- Colorless
nitrate
Nitric acid HNO3 Colorless H+ Colorless NO3- Colorless

III. Discussions
A. Determination of Conductivity

This part of experiment is used to test the conductivity of solutions. For

this part, conductivity apparatus is needed. This conductivity apparatus is
made up of a bulb that lights up when a circuit is closed using an electrolyte
solution. So these are the solutions to be tested by the conductivity apparatus:
dry NaCl, distilled water, tap water, NaCl solution, NaOH solution, HCl
solution, NH4OH solution and NH4cl solution. Based on the data that we got
during the experiment, dry NaCl and distilled water does not conduct
electricity because the ions of NaCl are not disassociated when it is in solid
form there for there are not ions that acts as a conductor while in distilled
water it does not contain any loose ion therefore it cannot conduct electricity.
For tap water, NaCl solution, HCl solution, NaOH solution, NH4OH solution
and NH4Cl solutions conducts electricity because they are all electrolytes
therefore there are loose ions in the solutions that acts as a conductor that light
up the bulb but they differ in the intensity of light when they were tested in the
conductivity apparatus. The main reason for it is because the solutions have
different ionization energy.
 B. Identifications of ions

In this part of experiment solutions were tested using a conductivity

apparatus. These solutions were all electrolytes, therefore the solutions are all
conductors of electricity but due to the lack of apparatus the last task was not
performed thus, we find another way to get information. In this experiment,
we were tasked to deduce the colors, theoretically the hydroxide ions,
hydrogen ions, nitrate ions, potassium ions, sulfate ions and chloride ions are
colourless ions. Chromate ion would be yellow, copper is red, iron would be
yellow/brown and lastly the cobalt would exhibit a pink colour.

IV. Answers to Questions

B. Identification of ions
1. What classes of substances are good conductors?
Strong electrolytes such as NaCl,NaOH and HCl are good conductors
2. What does conductivity depend upon?
Conductivity depends on the measurement of the ability of water to
conduct an electric current. The more ions there are in the solution, the
higher the conductivity.
3. What happens to electrolytes in solutions?
The electrolytes can be divided into acids, bases and salts because they
give ions when dissolved in water. Hence, can conduct electricity due
to the mobility of the positive and negative ions.
4. What makes an electrolyte a conductor of electricity when in a solution?
Because of a solute dissociates in water to form ions and due to the
mobility of the positive and negative ions.
5. Differentiate a weak from a strong electrolyte.
A weak electrolyte is considered to be one that is not completely
dissociated therefore still containing whole compounds and ions in the
solution while a strong electrolyte is considered to be completely
ionized or dissociated in water meaning it is soluble.
6. Differentiate concentrated from dilute solutions.
A solution with a relatively small concentration of solute is said to
dilute; one with a large solute concentration is said to be concentrated.
7. Are concentrated solutions also strong electrolytes? Give an example.
Yes, it has strong concentration of ions. Examples are MgCl2 in water,
aqueous solution of KNO3, KCl and NaNO3.
8. Are weak electrolytes also dilute solutions?
 Yes,
V. Conclusion
In conclusion, the experimenters were able to generalize that the solutions that
contains loose ions are able to conduct electricity because of the movement of the
charged particles while solutions that does not contain charged particles does not
conduct electricity for electricity to flow there should be loose charged ions. The
intensity of the conductivity of the solutions is measured using the ionization energy
of the solutions wherein the electrolyte solutions can be classified into two which is
the weak and strong electrolyte.
VI. References
General Chemistry: Strong/Weak/Non-Electrolytes.(n.d),Retrieved March 17,
2015, from http://www.brynmawr.edu/chemistry/Chem/Chem101lc/
GCelectrolyte.html
Conductivity of Solutions-Chem 101 Lab-1, (n.d). Retrieved March 17, 2015,
from https://www.scribd.com/doc/39968887/Conductivity-of-Solutions-
Chem-101-Lab-1
Brown, et.al., (2014). Chemistry: The Central Science, Pearson Education South
Asia Pte Ltd.