TITLE

Determination of the purity of sodium sulphate sample by gravimetric analysis

OBJECTIVE

To determine the purity of sodium sulphate in a sample

INTRODUCTION

Gravimetric analysis or precipitation gravimetric is an analytical technique that uses a precipitation

reaction to separate ions from a solution. The chemicals that is added to cause the precipitation is called
the precipitant or precipitating agent. The solid precipitate can be separated from the liquid components
using filtration, and the mass of the solid can be used along with the balanced chemical equation to
calculate the amount or concentration of ionic compound in solution. The equation for this experiment is:

Ba2+ (aq) + SO42-(aq) BaSO4(s)

APPARATUS

400ml beaker, burette, filter funnel, conical flask, rubber policeman and filter paper

CHEMICALS

Sodium sulphate, 0.25 M Barium chloride solution, concentrated HCL and silver nitrate solution

PROCEDURE

(a) Precipitating Stage

1. About 0.6 g of sodium sulphate are weight and been dissolved in a 400 ml beaker with addition of
20 ml distilled water.
2. The solution is heated to let the sodium sulphate fully dissolved and after that plus with 0.5 ml
concentrated HCL to make acidic.
3. The solution is dilute to 250 ml and keep heating until 80oC.
4. 20 ml of 0.25 M BaCl2 are slowly added to the hot solution from the burette whilst stirring.
5. The solution was covered with a watch glass and leave for 1 hour.

(b) Filtration and washing the precipitate

1. The mass of filter paper is weight and recorded.

2. The supernatant is pour onto the filter paper without stirring the solution at all to leaving as much
precipitate as possible.
3. The precipitate that leave behind are rinse with warm distilled water and pour back the
supernatant onto the filter paper. The steps are repeated once with the help of rubber policeman
and wash bottle.
4. The precipitate is keep wash with distilled water until the absent of chloride ion. Nitrate ion are
used to detect the presence of chloride ion.

(c) Drying and weighing the product

1. The filter paper and the precipitate are let to dry.

2. The filter paper with the content are weight to get the constant mass of the precipitate. The mass
of the product is recorded and calculation are being made.
DATA
Mass of the sodium sulphate sample = 0.6033 g
Mass of filter paper = 1.0478 g
Mass of filter paper + precipitate = 1.9804 g
Mass of precipitate = 0.9326 g
CALCULATIONS
1. Mass of BaSO4 precipitated

1.9804 g – 1.0478 g = 0.9326 g

2. Actual mass of sodium sulphate in the sample

Gravimetric Factor, Gf of sodium sulphate in BaSO4

𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑠𝑢𝑙𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒 32.065+4(15.999)

= 137.327+22.989+4(15.999)
𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑎𝑆𝑂4
96.061
= 224.312

= 0.428
Actual mass = Gravimetric Factor, Gf × weight of weighing form
= 0.428 × 0.9326 g
= 0.3989 g
3. Purity of the sodium sulphate
0.3989
% SO4 = × 100 %
0.9326 𝑔

= 42.13 %

DISCUSSSION

First of all, we do not have expectation for this experiment as the result may be differ each time the
experiment is being conduct due to the handling method or accuracy while sampling but for sure the
result is not 100% pure as we have added 0.5 ml of concentrated HCl which will interrupt the purity. As for
comparison with the theory value it cannot be done as we said before it does not have a constant value
every time the experiment be made so to find an exact value is quite hard which make the theory value
unavailable. Overall we can say the result from this experiment is quite satisfy as we get the value lower
than 100% and almost the same as the other group that conduct this experiment. It cannot be denying
that there is an experimental factor that may affected our result like the precipitate that stuck at the
surface of the rubber policeman during the extraction. We tried to rinse with distilled water but still there is
a thin layer of the precipitate which affect the end result of the mass. There is an adjustment that we can
made like using a vacuum instead of gravity during the filtration process to make the process a bit faster.
So we can use the extra time to repeat the process in order to absent the chloride ion.
CONCLUSION

We managed to get 42.13% purity of sodium sulphate in the sample.

QUESTION

We use comparison to solve this problem. We use 20 ml of 0.25 M BaCl2 and the result of purity came out
as 42.13% so we made a calculation that 0.4747 ml is needed to make 1% purity. So for 100 % purity we
need an amount of 47.47 ml of 0.25 M BaCl2.

REFERENCE

Khan Academy. (2018). Khan Academy.

Retrieved from Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemical-reaction-

stoichiome/limiting-reagent-stiochiometry/a/gravimetric-analysis-and-precipitation-gravimetry